OAs 45 BSRFC 35

On a perfect day for rugby (watching), Stortford found themselves on the wrong end of a 10 point deficit to old rivals Old Albanians. Our usual slow start and a series of missed tackles gave OA's an opening score in the corner - there was a suspicion of a foot into touch but the hapless ref had forgotten to check if there was a touch judge on that side and the try was awarded! Fortunately a real ref arrived after a couple of minutes and Rob was able to hand over the whistle and return to coaching! ;-)

OAs had the better of early exchanges and exerted consistent pressure on the Stortford defence, however a press forward forced the OA's fullback into a rushed kick which found Fabian free in the back field. Our fullbacks powerful return run broke the OA's defence and only a high tackle prevented him from scoring leading to the correct award of a penalty try. Our defensive frailties continued and 5 missed tackles presented another try for the home side before a powerful drive from Zico crossed for another Stortford score. With the game poised at 12-14 our concentration went and we conceded three unanswered tries before the break to give the home side a comfortable 31-14 lead at half time.

Some home truths were delivered during the interval and Stotford returned to the field with fresh determination. Some great wing play from Calan and a well timed offload to Fabian allowed our fullback in for a score which he duly converted. OA's hit back with a converted try before Samuel got through his gears and drove hard at their back line. Our centre crashed and barged his way through with a direct and powerful run which was rewarded when he crossed the line for a superb individual score. Fab added the conversion to narrow the gap to 10 points with plenty of time on the clock.

However, with the momentum flowing our way more careless defending and poor tackling allowed OAs to steal back the initiative with their 7th try of the match. The boys in blue continued to rally, and with an OA's player in the bin for making contact with a player in the air, Ali scored in the corner to once again close the gap. The last 10 mins were all Stortford, but we couldn't get the ball over the line as white-line fever repeatedly thwarted us.

Fabian deservedly collected the MoM award for his 13 points (which could and should have been 20 were it not for the early high tackle) - If we could have only started with the same determination that we finished the match the scoreline may well have been different! We move on.