Birmingham Moseley 38 Bishop's Stortford First XV 13

Moseley started very quickly, regathering a box kick after receiving the opening dropout and then moving the ball swiftly side to side to stretch the visitors' defence to create a try out wide on the left with barely 3 minutes gone. Stortford came back quickly and Dan Cole kicked an offside penalty goal from distance but an almost carbon copy try to the hosts after 14 minutes, following more smart handling, took their lead out to 7 points. The visitors fought back, but blew a golden opportunity to score their own try, when Tom Mills made a clean break. His pass, though, with the line beckoning, went to ground and his side had to settle for a second Cole penalty goal after 23 minutes. Against the overall run of play, Stortford levelled the scores 4 minutes later, when Cole put a rolling kick in behind Moseley's flat outside defence, for Jake Morris to chase and gather a friendly bounce to touch down wide on the right. A great touchline conversion by Cole took his side into the lead, but this was overturned almost immediately, when poor presentation of the ball at a tackle after the restart kick had been safely caught allowed a Moseley player to latch onto the ball to win a penalty. A clinically driven maul from the resultant 5 metre lineout produced the home side's third unconverted try. Stortford bounced back, winning an attacking penalty and, when Chris Bolton took a quick tap, he was tackled well within 10 metres, for which a home second row was shown a yellow card. With half-time imminent, the visitors were unable to take advantage of the extra man, so went into the break two points behind.

Far from capitalising on their numerical advantage after the restart, Stortford were unable to recover their own tap back of the opening drop kick and Moseley took full advantage, when livewire fullback, Sam Pointon ran back a long dropout, after the home side had been held up over the try line. After making 20 metres, he was able to chip a kick ahead into a wide open space and a huge bounce allowed him to recover and beat the final tackler for a converted try. This, unfortunately heralded a second half, which was almost totally dominated by the home side. The visitors managed to muster only two short spells, where they were able to go through several phases and the second almost produced a consolation try after good interplay between Alex Gilham and Morris, but the scoring pass went to ground. Moseley, in the meantime had run the opposition ragged, initially settling for two penalty goals by Jack Jolly but, inevitably, their constant flow of possession and generally quick and accurate handling against a weary-looking Stortford produced a try under the posts with 62 minutes gone. Despite the visitors' brief shows of defiant running that followed, the hosts ended the game right on top but, mercifully, again opted for a final penalty goal, rather than going for another try.