Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 35 Dings Crusaders 14

After a very early injury to the visitors’ scrumhalf, Steve Plummer, Stortford quickly got into their stride and pretty much dominated the first 30 minutes. They were, therefore, good value for their two early tries to No 8, Mark McCraith and 7, Richard Gill after 15 and 19 minutes, both brilliantly converted by skipper, Tom Coleman. The first came off the back of a strongly driven 5 metre scrum taken in lieu of a kick, after a good backs’ move had forced a penalty at the breakdown in the Dings red zone. This also produced a yellow card for the visitors’ No 1, James Cooke. The second came after a good miss pass by scrumhalf, Tom Dougherty created space, which winger, Wayne Child and second row, Matt Tomlinson exploited well to stretch the Dings defence and give their flanker a good sight of the line. Stortford’s 15-man running rugby could easily have produced another three tries, with centre, Sam Winter in particular enjoying a field day, but small errors proved crucial and allowed Dings slowly to work their way into the game. As the half was running out, the visitors went through multiple phases and a quick penalty from Stortford’s 5 metre line (which had also produced a yellow card for home fullback, Nick Hankin) brought a deserved try to 8,Jake Holcombe. The excellent conversion by fullback, Mark Woodrow (covering at 9 for Plummer’s early injury and a threat throughout the game from broken play) took the halftime score to 14-7. From the visitors’ viewpoint this was a tremendous position, given the limited possession they had been allowed during the half.

Stortford started the second period slowly and a crop of largely unforced errors brought Dings increasingly into the game against the fourteen-man opposition. It was, therefore, no surprise, when the scores were levelled after 10 minutes, when Dings finally made decisive use of ball from one of the home side’s mistakes for a converted try to No 13, Rob Dempsey, exploiting space created by a well-judged long pass in midfield. Stortford now seemed to have been shocked into concerted action and aided by an injection of new energy from the bench via props, Will Roberts and Tom McCrone and, especially scrumhalf, Arran Mahoney, the home side bounced back. The general tempo was increased and Hankin took full advantage of the new momentum gained to produce a couple of his trademark weaving runs, the first leading directly to a try after 16 minutes of the half for centre, John Neville in close support of his fullback. He was also instrumental in creating the position, from which replacement winger, Jimmy Rea jinked his way over under the posts from a five metre scrum. Coleman had no problem with either conversion to take his side out to a now comfortable 28-14 lead after 26 minutes of the half. He was, likewise, never going to miss the kick from under the posts, which resulted from a penalty try after 30 minutes, awarded after a 5 metre scrum, being driven powerfully at the Dings line was brought down illegally. This completed the scoring at 35-14.