Stortford squeeze past a brave Kingsbridge

Informed watchers knew that the Devonians wouldn't have bothered enduring the 7 hour each way coach trip unless they thought they’d be competitive and so it proved.
One might have thought that the visitors would be slow out of the blocks but far from it! Kingsbridge dominated long periods of a first half in which they played with the wind. However the elements could not fully explain Stortford’s early lethargic approach to such a crucial encounter.
With barely 10 minutes on the clock the Devon side spurned two gilt edged opportunities to register tries by failing to fully utilise gaping overlaps. Instead they had to content themselves with punishing two of several penalties that Stortford were conceding by failing to remove defenders from rucks.
Thankfully Stortford’s deficit at half time was restricted to the two successful penalty attempts from Kingsbridge’s fly half and were immensely grateful to hear the referees half time whistle only trailing 0-6.
The strong words had by Stortford’s coaches in the break had an almost immediate effect when the game was restarted. A much higher level of intensity along with the first real sustained period of Stortford possession culminated in right winger Nick Train scrambling over the line for the first try of the afternoon. The difficult conversion was missed but the hosts were back in the game. 5-6.
For the first time Stortford sensed weakness in their courageous opponents and significantly increased the pressure on a defence trying to play themselves out of defence against a strong wind.
Stortford No. 8 Teddy Oliver forced his opposite number into conceding a penalty deep inside his own half and from the resultant line out the host’s well drilled maul barrelled their way over the line with lock Marko Cubric scoring the try. Stortford Fly half Dominic Lilley successfully added the extras to put Stortford ahead for the first time 12-6.
But having travelled so far Kingsbridge were far from ready to give up easily and with 15 minutes to go they set up a dynamic driving maul of their own to cross the line and restore their lead which was increased through a brilliant conversion by their No.10 which made the score 12-13.
As the clock counted down Stortford became increasingly frantic in their attempts to reclaim the lead. With 5 minutes to go they thought they had done it only for the officials to adjudicate that the ball had been held up over the line.
But the Stortford pressure was relentless and with barely 2 minutes left on the clock the ever alert Alex Patton, Stortford’s No 9, quickly took a tap penalty to set up a strong attacking position just short of the Kingsbridge line. Open side flanker Ben Gallop seized upon the ball and scrambled over the line for what proved to be the decisive score. Lilley once again added the extra points. Final score 19-13
Huge credit must go to the Kingsbridge squad for producing such a spirited performance so far from home. Stortford will need to improve significantly if they are to progress to the final but for today they can just content themselves with having overcome such determined opponents.