Confronted by possibly the best attacking team we have faced, Stortford found themselves 10 points behind with barely 5 minutes gone, as DMP’s 15 man rugby and superb off-loading game made them almost impossible to defend against. An excellent converted try and penalty were the outcome and a lesser side than Stortford might have buckled at that stage. Instead, they fought back via a great leaping catch by Nick Hankin from a testing kick out of defence by the home side, from which Tom Banks drew the DMP winger and gave Sam Winter enough room to burst down the outside and then supported inside to take a return pass and touch down close to the posts with 15 minutes gone. George Cullen’s conversion narrowed the gap to 3. Although the home side continued to threaten, Stortford’s aggressive defence - epitomised by one 30 yard sprint by hooker, Dec Caulfield to cover-tackle a threatening DMP wing into touch - kept them in the game and was rewarded after 20 minutes, when Cullen countered with a half break and, although his attempted offload dropped into space, Matt Riddington had the presence of mind to volley it forward, before regathering and dashing under the posts for another converted try. DMP fought back and were threatening the Stortford line some 7 minutes later, when Ryan Hutler leapt to intercept a potential scoring pass and run virtually the length of the pitch for another 7 pointer. The game had been played at a furious pace throughout and the home side, undaunted by the ruthless punishment of their previous error, threw themselves once more onto the attack and were rewarded with another quality try to their right wing after some more excellent handling through multiple phases. Another outstanding conversion narrowed the gap to 4 points, but Stortford were not content to settle for a narrow lead and 3 minutes later Cullen spotted a gap behind the defensive line and chipped ahead from just outside the DMP 22 and had just enough pace to beat the cover defence to the touchdown. His own conversion took his side into a 28-17 halftime lead.

The home side once again started quickly after the break and, within 5 minutes had narrowed the deficit to 4 with yet another converted try, despite a more error-prone Stortford side having earlier frustrated them by taking a second scrum against the head right on their own line, DMP continued to press and took three points from a penalty some 3 minutes later to bring them within one point of the visitors and pressed on from there. This time they needed a bit of good fortune as a 50:50 crossfield kick bounced back from the initial contest into the arms of the home side’s winger – possibly the shortest player on the field for him to touch down. Another superb conversion from the touchline took DMP into a 6 point lead, but Stortford’s dogged refusal to bow the knee prevented a rampant home side from extending the lead for another 25 minutes. Eventually, though the incisiveness of the home side’s backs was made to tell again with another try out wide, followed by yet touchline conversion to stretch the lead to 13 points. As they have shown in previous matches, Stortford are never short of fight and, with less than 5 minutes to go, they duly launched themselves into the first concerted attack they had been able to muster in the second half. This was duly rewarded, with time almost up, as Rob Duff, came in off his wing to make a decisive break up the middle and found prop, Seb Brownhill in close support to gallop over for a try close to the posts. The conversion was still required to give the visitors the deserved reward of a second bonus point and Cullen held his nerve to do the necessary, triggering a huge reaction from the hundred or so Stortford supporters who had made the long journey north. This was no more than the colossal effort put in by the whole squad over the full 80 minutes deserved, having played their full part in a tremendous game of rugby against a powerful DMP side.