Playing into the wind, but down the slope towards hellfire corner, Redruth controlled possession for almost the whole of the first 8 minutes, having turned Stortford over in their first, promising attack of the game. Eventually, they forced two penalties, leading to a lineout just inside Stortford’s 22, from which they set up a powerful driving maul and then caught the visitors’ defence on the hop by going quickly blind, before the maul had been stopped. This created enough room for powerful winger, Vinnecombe to force his way over relatively easily for a try in the corner, from which a conversion into the wind was nigh-on impossible. This set the pattern for the rest of the half, as the home scrum dominated the set pieces and the whole team used the ball generally very well to keep Stortford under pretty constant pressure. The webbed feet and hands, which they have probably developed from playing fairly frequently in such conditions would undoubtedly have been a significant advantage for them. Stout defence, held them out, but a yellow card shown to Rory Young after 37 minutes for repeated team infringements at scrums, led to an anxious period of last-ditch defending, until the halftime whistle went.

Stortford started the second period very brightly and a neat chip kick by Tom Coleman and quick hands by Johnny Neville in finding Sam Winter on the burst saw the fullback racing into space, supported by Nick Hankin. The winger stepped inside and was well tackled, but, as support piled in behind, Redruth were penalised for handling the ball in the ruck, for which one of their centres received a yellow card. When he was quickly followed into the bin by a member of his pack, after two further penalties in quick succession, it looked as if Stortford must surely score. The home side’s remaining 13 men, though tackled like dervishes and, with the aid of a couple of decisions that the ball had been held up over the try line, managed to hold out without conceding, until they were restored to full strength. Even then, Stortford remained much more competitive than they had been in the first half – only partly reflecting the undoubtedly big benefit that playing down the hill at Redruth brings. Unfortunately for the visitors, continued determination in defence by the home side took increasing control, as playing conditions became ever worse. In fact, it was Redruth that finished the stronger and might themselves have scored a second try after some more powerful driving play from their forwards. This was not to be, though and it would have been harsh justice, had Stortford’s determined efforts throughout in such awful conditions not been rewarded with the losing bonus point.

The nature of the game was clearly evidenced by the awarding of the man of the match prize to the Redruth No 3, whose contribution in the scrums was huge. To be fair, he was the team’s fulcrum – in between set pieces, he stood in the middle of the field and the game revolved around him - though he did make his considerable physical presence felt, whenever the ball reached him, or a Stortford player was rash enough to run into him.