Bishop's Stortford First XV 39 Taunton Titans 7

The visitors started aggressively but Stortford, having ridden out the initial storm took control of the first half, scoring four unanswered tries, which might well have been more, with a little more composure. Taunton could not cope with the home side's expansive rugby and were 5 points behind after 9 minutes, when Will Rogers touched down at the back of a driving maul from a 5 metre lineout, after a penalty under the opposition posts was kicked to touch. Within 10 minutes Stortford had registered two more unconverted tries. The first came from a Taunton goal line dropout, after Alex Rayment had been held up over the line, after a concerted assault launched by an unlikely kick ahead from Harry Charter, collected and taken on by fellow second row, Obinna Nkwocha. The ball was run straight back from the dropout and Francis Moore was able to commit Taunton's right wing and give Chris Smith just enough space to get outside and dive in for the try. It was then Moore's turn to become scorer, rounding off the best move of the afternoon. This started with a quickly tapped penalty from Chris Bolton, making ground to feed his threequarters, who in turn moved the ball quickly right to allow the centre once more to draw in the opposition winger to give Josh Stannard a yard of space to dash forward and commit the covering fullback before delivering a perfect inside pass for Moore to go over unopposed. The home side lost some momentum, when a minute later, Bolton was sin-binned for retaliating after he was pulled back after taking a quick attacking penalty away from the mark. Stortford, nevertheless, continued to control play and it was Moore again who capitalised to score his second try, as half time approached. This came from a well-judged long pass in midfield that put him outside his opposite number and he had enough pace to make the outside break stick.

The second half was a much scrappier affair, with Stortford disrupted by a number of - hopefully minor - injuries resulting in numerous positional changes. Taunton had their own difficulties, losing prop Will Vaughan to a red card for foul play off the ball after 50 minutes, followed 2 minutes later by a yellow card to another forward for collapsing a maul driving at their line, which resulted in a penalty try to Stortford. Despite their numerical disadvantage, the visitors hurled themselves onto the front foot, gaining an edge especially up front and it took some stern home defence to repel a series of concerted drives at their line. Taunton were not to be denied, though and it was from another series of forward thrusts that replacement prop, Brian Ncube capped a rumbustious performance with a try converted by George Worboys with 10 minutes to go. The home side regathered itself and finished the game with two further tries - both from long range. The first came from a blindside dart by Bolton to create a two on one and immediately feed Jake Morris, who sprinted down the wing and then cut in to beat the last defender to score a great solo try from some 60 metres out. Connor Lloyd off the bench to play out of position in midfield added the conversion and was only narrowly wide 5 minutes later, when Charlie Parkhouse added the final try, seizing on fumbled Taunton ball, hacked on by Nkwocha to dash over out wide from inside the Stortford half.

With over 260 participants in the marquee today for our annual charity Ladies Day and our Blues team pushing Richmond Seconds all the way on pitch 2, the First XV's win capped off a tremendous day at Silver Leys. Huge thanks go to the many volunteers who contributed to making such a successful day. Special thanks also go to GRS Group, today's Man of the Match sponsors for the First Team's game. The bubbly went to backrow, Toby Tierney, just edging out Tristan Smith in two tremendous 80-minute performances.