Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 26 Sale 19

Stortford started aggressively, but the first score came from a charged-down kick, well-recovered by Nick Hankin. As he scrambled back, he managed to spin out of the first tackle and then found himself in the kind of broken field he relishes and dodged his way 50 yards upfield to find support close at hand, allowing skipper, Sam Winter to run in an opening try. Tom Banks kicked a good conversion, but was unable to repeat the feat 10 minutes later, when Josh Stannard finished off an impressive backs move, with James Ayrton's quick hands finally putting his winger into space out wide. The visitors battled back gamely, but were met by stout Stortford defence. The home side, though, despite winning two turnovers, were unable to take play out of their own half and were made to pay for this after 28 minutes, when a penalty conceded at a breakdown went to touch some 10 metres from the Stortford line. Sale's pack mounted a strong drive from the lineout and forced their way over the line for a try, which was very well converted by their flyhalf, Chris Johnson. The home side in turn fought back and, building on a penalty won by a strong scrum, put pressure on the Sale defence. A cynical deliberate knock-on, as Stortford threatened an overlap down the right produced a yellow card for Sale's winger and shortly thereafter a bullocking run up the middle by Baxter Wilson created new pressure and, with penalty advantage, once again being played, Austin Pope put in a pinpoint crosskick, which Chris Smith leapt high to take on the full and plunge over for a try. With only 2 minutes of the first half left, Banks made a great touchline conversion to stretch his side's lead at the break to 12 points.

Despite conceding an early penalty scrum, Stortford were soon on the attack again and looked to have put themselves out of reach, when Smith registered his second try with only 4 minutes of the second half gone. This came from quick ball moved down the backline, which Stannard exploited to the full, bursting past his opposite number, before drawing the covering fullback and putting his fellow wingman, running a great support line, clear to the posts. Banks converted and 15 minutes later almost set up a fifth try, but his offload almost on the Sale line was picked up by a covering defender. Rubbing salt into the wound, the visitors swept upfield and within 2 minutes had scored their second try, exploiting to the full a break by Oliver Longmore after two Stortford tacklers were taken out of the game, having clashed heads in trying to stop the hooker. Anthony Bingham, a very effective replacement winger finished off the try, which again was well converted by Johnson. Sale were now a team transformed, running the ball freely and were rewarded within 3 minutes, when Patrick Ah Van crashed over on the opposite wing, breaking a cover tackle for his side's third try, which brought them within a score of Stortford. With their tails well and truly up, Sale now exerted huge pressure, but the home side showed their true character by digging deep to repel an extended period of strong running rugby. Having soaked up this pressure, Stortford slowly steadied the ship, going through multiple phases of possession and drawing the sting from the opposition to see the game out for a hard-earned win.

Many thanks to today's Matchday Sponsors, Forward Corporate Finance for their great support of the Club and to Barons BMW, who sponsored the Man of the Match award, that went to double try-scorer, Chris Smith.