Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 25 Shelford 11

Stortford dominated the first period with some impressive 15 man rugby, and threatened the Shelford line more than once, but were thwarted by some stout tackling. After 11 minutes, though, the visitors broke out via a good run from right winger, Steven Smith and, from this, their first attack of the game, centre, Rory Hutchinson slotted a penalty for a breakdown offence. The home side bounced back to dominate territory again and forced a lineout just outside the Shelford 5 metre line. Stortford drove the ball from the lineout and were awarded – slightly controversially as it was the first offence in that phase of play – a penalty try for collapsing the maul, albeit that it was heading for the Shelford line at a rate of knots. Flyhalf, Marcus Cattell made no mistake with the conversion. The only other action of note in a fiercely contested first half, as the large visiting pack established something of an edge at the scrums, was a second penalty to Shelford’s Hutchinson for offside on the point of halftime. This took the score at the break to 7-6.

Starting the second period quickly again, Stortford soon extended their lead with a try to centre, Nick Hankin, 5 minutes in, with a scything run off a great long pass from flyhalf, Marcus Cattell, that gave him half a yard outside his opposite number. The home pack were now coping better with the strength of the opposing eight at the set piece and the extra mobility of the Stortford forwards gradually began to tell. This culminated, 28 minutes into the half, when home No 6, Steve Ball scored a tremendous solo try bursting through a number of tackles on his way to the line. The conversion attempt by Cattell again went narrowly wide, leaving the score at 17-6. Shelford now enjoyed a brief spell of pressure on the Stortford line and, after a number of forward drives were repelled, they spun the ball wide, where Smith touched down after 32 minutes to take the score to 17-11. Stortford’s lead was restored to 11 points 5 minutes later when Hankin scored his team’s bonus point-winning fourth try, when the visitors’ defence was caught napping , as they – and most of the spectators! – expected the three points to be taken from in front of the posts. Cattell, instead took a quick tap and fed his centre, who was not to be denied his second touchdown. The scoring was completed by a Cattell penalty 4 minutes from the end for a deliberate barge on Hankin, chasing a kick through and otherwise clear to the line, which earned the Shelford 9, Charlie Baker a yellow card.

This fourth victory in a row was probably the best of the lot, in that it was won against a highly competitive Shelford side, who contested hard from first to last – good preparation for the warm welcome that will no doubt await us on the pitch in Redruth next week!