Blackheath 19 Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 14

Having barely got over the disappointment of watching England's deserved World Cup defeat in a packed Stortford Clubhouse, this National One game started in very similar fashion, with a couple of unforced handling errors leading to a Blackheath scrum inside Stortford's 22, at which the home pack dominated to win a penalty, which went to touch and Stortford had no answer to a well-organised driving maul from the lineout and the try was duly converted by their flyhalf. Barely a minute later, though, things became much worse for the visitors, when a free kick at a scrum close to halfway was taken quickly and Stortford's defence was caught completely flat-footed, with two passes being enough to see Blackheath's right wing in for another converted try, without a tackle being made. With the home pack continuing to dominate at the scrums, Stortford had to dig deep, which they duly did, forcing their way gradually back into the game with some fierce tackling and good handling in testing conditions. They did this to such good effect that they controlled most of the last 15 minutes of the half, pinning the home side inside their own half and mounting a series of concerted drives at their line. A succession of penalties within their own 22 was eventually punished with a yellow card to Blackheath's 7 with 35minutes elapsed. Having repelled a brief home sortie into their half, Stortford launched another sequence of forward drives at the opposition line. They were held up over the line once, but an uncharacteristically powerful 5 metre scrum allowed Baxter Wilson to break off and force his way over for a try, well converted by Brad Burr. Stortford were soon back on the attack and only some desperate Blackheath defence and three successive penalties managed to prevent another try almost immediately. Once again, the accumulation of offences brought a yellow card - this time for the home 5 - deep into first half injury time and only shortly after the 7 had returned from the sin bin. Another penalty soon followed, but Stortford were not to be denied and, after another series of powerful thrusts at the line, Tom Lewis dived over the top of the umpteenth ruck for a try out by the touchline. Almost miraculously, Burr kicked the conversion across a very strong wind, scraping the cross bar on its way over, to level the scores as the half ended.

After a halftime downpour, handling became more difficult, favouring Blackheath's powerful tight game and making it much more difficult for Stortford to move the ball around quickly, to try and escape the home side's suffocating defence. The visitors, nevertheless enjoyed the better of the early exchanges, with James Apperley stealing a number of home lineout balls, but this time Blackheath's defence held firm. Eventually, a soft penalty was conceded by a Stortford player for falling on a retreating defender as he went to ground to recover a loose ball close to the home team's 22. A good penalty kick to touch took them just into the Stortford half but, refuelled by one of many injury stops, the Blackheath pack drove the maul from the resultant lineout at least 15 metres down field. This put them on the front foot and it took only two phases for their forwards to drive over for an unconverted try after 22 minutes. Stortford battled bravely to get the next score, but the home defence remained strong and looked less and less likely to conceded as the game went on. In fact, with time running out they forced their way into the Stortford half and a penalty to touch around the 5 metre line gave their forwards a golden opportunity to deprive Stortford of a losing bonus point. They duly won the lineout, but were immediately penalised for a player joining the maul from an offside position. In seeking maximum distance with the penalty, Stortford failed to make touch and Blackheath were happy to kick the ball out to end the game.

Footnote: The lack of Blackheath's players' names in this report is due to the absence of printed programmes and, although I am told that a copy could have been downloaded from their website, I'm afraid that I have already devoted too much of my birthday to disappointing rugby activities and a cold beer is calling!