The visitors started like a train and were a converted try ahead within 5 minutes, after Rotherham were turned over close to halfway and quick ball to Alex Gilham put the winger into open space, with one pass inside to Chris Bolton seeing the scrumhalf under the posts, giving Mike Cooke an easy conversion. The home side struck back almost immediately, with powerful thrusts from two of their big forwards making inroads, eventually setting up centre, Jamie Cooke for an unconverted try. They were quickly rocked, however with 3 more converted tries to Stortford in the next 15 minutes to bring up the bonus point. The first went to Jack Biard, exploiting a big gap in their midfield to swerve outside his opposite number and sprint in from 30 metres. Roth. countered with a penalty goal but, straight from the restart, Will Rogers swooped for an opportunist try, as the home side were slow to support as their catcher laid the ball back clear of the tackle area and the number 8 was the first to react, hacking on and collecting the bouncing ball to canter in for the try. The fourth try came from a penalty try for an illegal challenge on Cooke, as he caught the opposition flat-footed to run at the line from a position created by his own 50-22 kick. Stortford were now rampant and it took a last ditch tackle to stop Tom Mills scoring in the corner 3 minutes later, but the home side’s respite lasted only 2 minutes, as Rogers went in for his second try, after David Hayes ran back a Rotherham kick through the heart of the home defence, with Alex Rayment (unfortunately getting injured in the process) providing the link to his skipper. Cooke maintained his 100% record off the tee to move his side 27 points ahead, but the team had to finish the half with a fantastic defensive stint, as Rotherham’s powerful pack hurled itself repeatedly at the try line, producing a series of 5 m lineouts. Stortford dug deep, making tackle after tackle and finally ended the danger when Ollie Jones made a clean steal of another 5m lineout.

The second half was a very different affair, with Stortford now the side under pressure, particularly at scrum time, conceding a number of penalties at the set piece, but adding to their challenges with several, sometimes unforced offences in open play. The home side, clearly stung by the drubbing they’d taken in the first half took full advantage, exerting enormous pressure and repeatedly testing Stortford’s still resolute defence. This resulted in a stream of red zone penalties, numerous 5 metre lineouts and two yellow cards, which overlapped, meaning that the visitors were reduced for the second week in a row to 13 men for a period. The second came after the home side repeatedly took scrums from penalties, with the Stortford pack, already under pressure, naturally unable to cope with only 7 forwards. Rotherham pulled back three tries, but Stortford’s staunch defence meant that they had to work extremely hard for them, running 33 minutes off the clock, with another Cooke penalty goal in the meantime, leaving his side 27-38 ahead. Shortly afterwards, a Rotherham forward was carded for going into contact, leading with a high forearm and , with his team now running out of time, they made a crucial handling error, trying to run the ball out of their own 22. Tom Mills seized on the loose ball to tap it ahead and regather for an easy try, again converted by Cooke. The home side was down, but not out and they fought back in typically robust fashion to end the game with a forwards’ try close to the post and a final score of 34-45.