Bishop's Stortford First XV 29 Birmingham Moseley 15

Moseley came here full of determination, having beaten Stortford narrowly at home and, having hit a bad run of results recently, needing league points pretty urgently. They were, as a result, extremely competitive, having a clear edge in the early set scrums, contesting breakdowns to good effect, winning a number of turnovers and tackling hard. They were rewarded with a penalty goal kicked by flyhalf, Cliffie Hodgson after 3 minutes and held onto the lead for almost quarter of an hour, despite concerted Stortford pressure, until Seb Brownhill scored an unconverted try from a driving maul. This was followed only 4 minutes later, with an impressive try to Nick Hankin, after some clever interplay with Josh Stannard set the lively fullback, enjoying probably his best game of the season, free to run in under the posts from 30 yards out. Tom Banks's conversion took his side's lead out to 9 points, but this was reduced to 5 only three minutes later, when a poor Stortford chase of a box kick inside their own half allowed a Moseley player to take the ball unchallenged and make ground, finding close support and, leading several phases later to a try out wide to fullback, Louis Roach. Defences dominated for the remaining 14 minutes, as the visitors managed to stifle Stortford's efforts to play with high tempo.

The home side were more successful in dictating the pace of the game, as it progressed through the second half and were rewarded within 5 minutes of the restart with Baxter Wilson finishing off a period of sustained pressure, with James Thacker and Stannard again prominent. Banks converted, but Moseley battled back and the game was in the balance again 18 minutes later, when the visitors capitalised on a momentary slip in Stortford's tackling to break down the right wing for a try to centre, John Davetanivalu, converted from the touchline by Hodgson. Home nerves were quickly steadied by a George Cullen penalty goal only 2 minutes later and the team proceeded to play some impressive running rugby. This brought fairly quick results, with skipper, Sam Winter scoring the bonus point try on 69 minutes, catching a pinpoint chip kick from Cullen on the full and plunging over by the posts, leaving the flyhalf an easy conversion. Moseley were not ready to lie down, though and fought back briefly, but Stortford's running game now really started to click and, but for a little extra composure close to the opposition line, would surely have added a couple more tries, despite continued manful defence from the visitors.

It was good to welcome a table of Stortford Golf Club members to the pre-match lunch and they were rewarded with the considerable challenge of choosing the Man of the Match from the many home players that had preformed outstandingly. In the event, they were unable to decide between the very diverse talents of Sam Winter, who stood out all afternoon both in attack and defence in an impressive backs line and Seb Brownhill, who performed manfully for 80 minutes in an outweighed scrum, switching from loose head to tight during the first half and still managed to show up prominently in the loose throughout. The award was, therefore deservedly shared.