Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 17 Chinnor30

Stortford started well and were rewarded after 14 minutes with an unconverted try to Tom Banks. A home lineout close to Chinnor's line was forced by a well-placed grubber kick from George Cullen, well chased by Josh Stannard and a penalty won from the set piece was quickly tapped by the scrumhalf, and the visitors were unable to stop him crashing over the line. The initiative was lost, however, when two soft penalties were conceded by Stortford in quick succession and the second went to touch close to Stortford's 5 metre line. This led to the first of three tries from the visiting hooker, Nick Selway, at the back of a dominant driving maul after 21 minutes. On this occasion he broke off the back to touch down well infield to give his flyhalf an easy conversion. Stortford went straight back onto the attack, however, and another unconverted try on 25 minutes established a 3 point lead. The score went to Tom Lewis, in close support of Josh Stannard, after the winger had been put into space by a clever offload out of a tackle by Sam Winter. The lead lasted only for 2 minutes, though, when the ball was turned over on Stortford's 22 through a careless knock-on and, almost inevitably the visitor's dominant scrum was awarded a penalty, which equally inevitably went to touch. This time, Stortford's pack was able to stop the driving maul, but the relief was extremely short-lived, when the ball was spun along the line and a missed tackle out wide allowed skipper, Jason Worrall to touch down for an unconverted try. The visitors' tails were now up and they embarked on an extended period of expansive rugby, threatening through multiple phases to add to their tally, but Stortford's defence resisted brilliantly and eventually forced a turnover. Unfortunately, the home side were unable to show Chinnor's ability to go through the phases and the ball was quickly coughed up. Another penalty was conceded at the resultant scrum and Chinnor reeled off another touch kick, maul and try to Selway with 40 minutes gone, this time down the short side, from where Ryan's attempted conversion bounced out off the upright.

Stortford were unable to impose themselves at the start of the second half and it was no surprise, therefore, when Selway registered his hat trick with 9 minutes gone from yet another driving maul from a 5 metre lineout, after the home side were penalised at a breakdown. Stortford fought back and were unlucky not to be awarded a try some 15 minutes later, when Mike Ayrton touched down a cleverly dinked kick from Cullen in behind the Chinnor defence, but the ball was adjudged by the referee's assistant to have touched the line. Ryan soon added three points to the visitors' score, when Stortford were penalised under their own posts, having failed to find touch with their own penalty immediately before, with the ball then being run back powerfully up the middle. Despite the 17 point deficit, the home side surged back onto the attack and smart interplay between Al Gliksten and Nick Hankin saw the former stopped close to Chinnor's line, where their fullback was penalised and yellow-carded for a cynical offence. The score was not delayed for long, though and Sam Winter touched down on 73 minutes, gathering another pinpoint grubber kick from Cullen to touch down, with the flyhalf converting. Any hopes Stortford might have had of taking two league points by registering another converted try were quickly snuffed out, though, when Ryan notched another easy penalty goal 3 minutes later and the visitors saw the game out through their dominant forwards.

The Hilton Coachworks man of the match award went to Sam Winter, who led a spirited Stortford backline that defended extremely well and was more threatening in possession than their opposite numbers from Chinnor.