Taunton Titans 22 Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 17

Although starting slowly and without having shaken off last week's tendency to turn over far too much ball far too easily, Stortford managed to take the lead after 18 minutes via a penalty try, converted by George Cullen. The award came for a collapsed scrum being driven hard at the Taunton line, after an easy 3 points for a blatant offside had been declined in favour of the scrum. The position had been created by the first piece of threatening rugby produced by the side, with Steve Ball bursting through the close cover at a breakdown in their own 22 , making some 20 metres and finding Nick Hankin in close support to take the ball on a similar distance. The referee also yellow carded a Taunton forward for the penalty try offence, but far from being daunted by being a man short, the home side proceeded to score two tries of their own during the sin bin period. Stortford once more showed some of the generosity to opponents, which had been so much in evidence last week, when almost straight from the restart a soft penalty for breaking early off a wheeling opposition scrum, allowed the home side to kick for a lineout close to Stortford's line, from which the a driving maul from strong Taunton pack proved unstoppable. The conversion attempt fell short, as it did 3 minutes later, when the visitors - not for the first time - were turned over at a breakdown set up by them, allowing No 6, Dan Lee to pick up and run some thirty yards untouched for a really soft try. Fullback, Gary Kingdom again failed to add the two points to his own try after 30 minutes, which followed a penalty at a Stortford scrum on their own 22. Despite pressure from the Stortford defence, Taunton managed somehow to shovel the ball away and found the cover out wide very thin, so one long pass was all that was needed to allow the fullback to run diagonally just eluding a last ditch tackle from opposite number, Sam Winter. 15-7 hardly seemed a fair reflection of the superiority that the home side had shown for most of the match, so it was a real bonus for Stortford when, with the first half almost over, neat interplay between Harry Marner and George Cullen and a scything run from the latter saw him over for a try out wide. Unfortunately, the combined effort of scoring the try and narrowly missing the conversion, resulted in an injury to the centre, which saw him replaced at half time by Marcus Cattell.

Stortford started the second period much more positively, showing the patience and ball retention skills - missing for most of the first half - to go through phase after phase. As a result, they dominated most of the play for the first 15 minutes, but could not quite turn the possession and territory into points and indeed were lucky not to go further behind on two occasions, when rare Taunton incursions into Stortford territory saw a penalty shot missed and then a golden try-scoring opportunity spurned, when appalling handling by the visitors in their own 22 allowed the ball to be flyhacked over the try line, only for a home player to knock on, in the process of trying to touch down. The outcome of the match, though probably turned on an incident after 28 minutes, when Stortford were hammering on the Taunton line via their forwards, but were penalised for holding onto the ball at a tackle only feet from the line, when cries were ringing out from travelling supporters for prior offences by defenders to have been punished. The penalty kick relieved the pressure and, within 2 minutes it was Stortford that were seriously on the back foot, when Winter was deemed to have tripped an opponent, as he followed through to try and recover his own attempted chip kick that had been charged down - an offence for which he was yellow-carded. Taunton twisted the knife in the wound by kicking the resultant penalty to touch close to the Stortford line and once more driving over for a try, which Kingdom this time managed to convert. It was Stortford's turn now to show the resolve demonstarted by the hosts in the first half and shake off the handicap of being a player short to put more pressure on and, before Winter returned, they managed to score their own try from a driving maul off a 5 metre lineout achieved from their own penalty kick for touch Tom Coleman's conversion attempt from out wide was only narrowly wide. The last five minutes were a frantic affair but, although spent mostly in the Taunton half, didn't really threaten to produce a match-turning score, so Stortford had to settle for yet another bonus point to add to their impressive season's tally.