Redingensians 15 Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 27

Stortford started the game well, taking the ball from the opening dropout and then steadily working their way upfield, into the breeze, going through phase after phase after phase but, after about 5 minutes they were turned over and the home side proved to be rather more incisive. Building upon an early edge at the scrum, they first forced a penalty and then won clean ball moving forward, from which straightforward passing down the line was enough to allow their right winger to force his way over through a despairing cover tackle to score by the corner flag. The conversion fell well short and there followed an extended period of midfield arm wrestling, in which the defences of both sides tended to hold sway, with the home side being particularly impressive, as Stortford had the greater share of possession. After 29 minutes, though, as Stortford were hammering at the Redingensians line, the home No 6 was yellow-carded for a breakdown offence, very much in the red zone. Not to be denied, the visitors went for another lineout from the resultant penalty and this time, the driving maul could not be stopped, with hooker, Tom Crozier making the touchdown. Pier Dotta made an excellent conversion to take his side into a 2 point lead. The home team swept straight back onto the attack and took full advantage of a very poor Stortford defensive kick to set up their own assault on the try line. This again produced a yellow card - against Matt Tomlinson for an offence at a maul close to his own try line - and the end result, yet again was a try to the opposition from a lineout and driving maul. The conversion attempt went wide to leave the score 10-7, which was how the half ended, with the remaining minutes again dominated by strong defences.

Stortford started the second period again on the front foot, but this time managed to make multiple phases of hard, driving rugby count, as space was eventually forced after 4 minutes for Dom Morris to touch down out wide for an unconverted try. Although Stortford did seem to be gaining a slight edge in the battle to break down the opposition's defence, the game was very much in the balance until the home side's No 6 saw the purple mist descend and was red-carded for a stamp at a ruck well away from the ball after 13 minutes. This having been said, Stortford's immediate attempt to take advantage fell drastically apart, as a hopeful pass was thrown at the end of a surging upfield drive, for it to be intercepted, allowing the Redingensians' winger to run in a try from some 80 metres out. Stortford immediately went back onto the attack from the restart and another penalty/lineout/driving maul from a few metres out produced a try for flanker, Richard Gill after 18 minutes. The conversion attempt again drifted across the face of the goal to leave the score at 15-17. Stortford's remorseless driving game against the home side's 14 men inevitably started to tell and finally, a tackle was missed in midfield, allowing Dom Morris to burst through from halfway and use his pace to run around the covering fullback to make the line out wide for another unconverted try. Though allowing a golden try chance to go begging through over- elaboration by one of the backs, Stortford were now well on top against an inevitably tiring home team, with replacement props, Rory Young and Tom McCrone taking full advantage at the set pieces, but it took until the 38th minute to seal the victory with another try for Richard Gill from a driving maul - this one from some 20 yards out. Redingensians still didn't give up and hurled themselves into a series of phases of their own, in the hunt for their own bonus point try and a losing bonus point, but the game ended. as it had started, with defence being in charge, leaving the final score at 15-27 and the home side denied any return for their huge team effort over the 80 minutes.