Ampthill 41 Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 22

Playing with the benefit of a strong wind in the first half, Stortford dominated the first 28 minutes, but were unable to break down a well-organised and powerful Ampthill defence. The visitors’ efforts were certainly not helped by the loss after 16 minutes of openside flanker, Richard Gill to a leg injury, followed very shortly onto the sidelines by his replacement, Chris Aldam with a broken nose, which meant that a front row player had to play in the back row for the rest of the match. Three well-struck penalty goals after 2, 9 and 28 minutes from flyhalf, George Cullen were all that his side had to show for a lot of good, ambitious rugby. The match turned dramatically when Stortford’s scrumhalf, Arran Mahoney was yellow-carded for a breakdown offence almost on his own line, following a great snipe from his opposite number, Thonas Aviss off the back of a strong scrum on the visitors’ 22. Ampthill capitalised on the situation almost immediately with a try to No 8, Maama Molitika breaking cleanly from a 5 metre scrum. Fullback, Elliot Clements- Hill converted without problem from in front of the posts. Worse was to come, though when the previously pretty solid Stortford scrum lost a ball against the head and quick hands saw the Ampthill 13, Aaron Morris force his way over for an unconverted try out wide. The conversion into the wind proved beyond Clements-Hill, but crucially the score took the home side into a halftime lead, with the wind to play with in the second half.

Stortford again started the second period strongly, but had to settle for a fourth penalty for Cullen after the ball was killed in front of the Ampthill posts, following some good , patient attacking rugby by the visitors, in which hooker, Declan Caulfield figured prominently. Within a minute, though, the home side had regained the lead, when Morris ran through a weak tackle to score his second try, which Clements-Hill converted. The Ampthill lead was stretched to 14 points after 15 minutes, when another scrum taken against the head by their pack was ruthlessly exploited via the sound hands of their backs for a try out wide to winger, Dean Adamson, which was expertly converted by his fullback. On 23 minutes Clements-Hill was again successful with a penalty shot after Molitika had been allowed to run over 30 metres from the back of a scrum to force an infringement at the first breakdown. Stortford continued to battle hard and a period of more patient handling swinging to and fro across the pitch was rewarded with a try after 30 minutes near the touchline to substitute wing, Ross Bird. The conversion proved just beyond even the powerful boot of Cullen. Ampthill again scored almost immediately, though, as the Stortford forwards – not for the first time – failed to deal with a long drop-out, allowing the kick to bounce into touch. This error was then compounded with a botched short lineout on their own line, that allowed a burly Ampthill prop to dive on a loose ball for a gift of a try. Clements-Hill duly converted to take the score to 36-17. The visitors were still not done and no. 6. Hugh Michell crowned another battling performance after 42 minutes, with a try close to touch from a short pass by Cullen, following a strong drive by replacement prop, Nathan Higgins. The flyhalf’s conversion attempt went even closer than his previous effort, but fell just short. The last word, however, rightly went to the home side via a final unconverted try after 45 minutes, exploiting to the full some tired-looking Stortford defence to take the score at the close to 41-22.