Taunton Titans 24 Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 24

Playing with the benefit of a strong breeze blowing pretty much straight down the pitch, Stortford started very strongly and, within 2 minutes were 7 points ahead after Will Roberts supported a clean break by flyhalf, Tom Coleman on the opposition 22 to touch down close to the posts, providing for a routine conversion by the skipper. The lead was extended to 10 points after 7 minutes, with an excellent penalty goal from Coleman from just inside the Taunton half, when the home side offended at a scrum. Stortford continued to apply pressure with judicious positional kicking and committed running from both forwards and backs. Despite missing a golden opportunity for another 7 points after 14 minutes, when a tremendous break by No 8, Mark McCraith was ended with a forward (otherwise scoring) pass, the visitors maintained the upper hand and were awarded a penalty try, after Taunton collapsed a set scrum being driven over their line. Coleman’s routine conversion took his side out to a 17-0 lead. The home side were far from cowed, however, and forced Stortford onto the defensive, enjoying almost 10 minutes of sustained pressure on the visitors’ line, which tested the defensive commitment to the full. Stortford showed tremendous spirit in repelling these attacks and, having finally turned the ball over, all but scored under the Taunton posts after a sweeping attacking move, being foiled on the line by trying to force a scoring pass out of contact, when a further phase or two would surely have brought the score. Eventually, though the score did come, when prop, Sean Edwards plunged over for a try in the corner, after a great line break and grubber kick by fullback, Nick Hankin set up two 5 metre scrums, which Stortford’s pack again dominated. Coleman slotted an excellent conversion to take his side into a halftime 24-0 lead.

Taunton were inevitably going to come out for the second half with all guns blazing, but Stortford briefly took the wind out of their sales with a some good handling out of their own 22 from the opening drop-out. This unfortunately came to an end with a forward pass out of contact in midfield, when greater patience was called for. The home side needed no second invitation to move onto the offensive and Stortford hardly got their hands on the ball for the next 15 minutes, during which time the visitors registered two converted tries and a penalty. These came from repeated phases of committed hard running and close support from the whole Taunton side, in which openside flanker, Ratu Vakalutukali figured prominently. The home side suddenly seemed superior in every area of the game and Stortford had to dig really deep to stem the flow, especially after flanker, Steve Ball was yellow-carded for a breakdown offence in the red zone, immediately before the 56th minute penalty took the score to 17-24. Dig deep they certainly did and indeed, despite their one man deficit, they started to push the previously rampant Taunton side back and were again enjoying the better of the set scrums. It was now Stortford’s turn to enjoy a period camped on the opposition line and they were unlucky not to register some kind of a score, being held up over the line once and having an eminently kickable penalty wiped off for a barely discernible advantage. The home side was not going to yield its unbeaten home record lightly, however, and they stormed back onto the offensive, once again putting Stortford’s defence to the sternest of tests. When a turnover was forced with normal time running out, it looked as if a memorable away win might be on the cards, but the visitors’ efforts to run down injury time through a series of forward drives was less concerted than it might have been and a penalty was conceded for holding on at a tackle, as support was slow to arrive. It took the Taunton forwards only two phases from a tapped penalty to batter through a now weary –looking defence for a try close to the posts, giving their flyhalf an easy conversion to level the score, as time ran out.

Two points well won away to a strong side (unbeaten at home since last March) – or a chance of a big win lost? Both could be argued, but the general view amongst the few travelling Stortford supporters for this rearranged game was that it had taken a much improved performance over those of recent weeks to achieve a draw, which should, therefore, be regarded as a good outcome.