Rotherham 24 Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 31

The hosts' opening drop out straight to touch gave Stortford a good start, which their pack capitalised on by winning a penalty at the resultant scrum against a bigger pack. From there, good handling from the visitors tied the opposition defence in knots and James Ayrton took the final pass to go in under the posts. George Cullen's conversion took his side 7 points ahead with barely 2 minutes gone. The flyhalf was less successful with an optimistic penalty shot at goal 3 minutes later, with Stortford well on top at that stage. Rotherham, though worked their way back into the game with some hard, straight running from quickly-recycled ball and were rewarded with a penalty and yellow card against James Thacker for a deliberate knock-on after 16 minutes. The home side proceeded to make one of a number of crucial lineout mistakes committed by both sides to lose possession, but Stortford immediately coughed up the ball, opting to go for a potentially killer long pass, with the ball being knocked on. Rotherham took full advantage of the extra man from the scrum and a couple of phases of more aggressive straight running saw them in for a try under the posts. Demonstrating his side's never say die attitude, Nick Hankin sped off the line to charge down the conversion attempt and Stortford's noses ahead. The lead was stretched to 5 through a Cullen penalty goal for offside after 21 minutes. Rotherham then embarked on a period of concerted pressure, but Stortford's defence against an aggressive, but fairly predictable opposition held strong, until an overthrown lineout close to their line turned the ball over allowing a home forward to crash over for a well-converted try, just before Stortford were restored to 15 men. The pendulum then swung back Stortford's way and Ayrton scored his second try with an excellent solo run from quick lineout ball on the home 22 to touchdown under the posts, with Cullen converting. It looked as if Rotherham had levelled the scores as the half came to a close but the score was overturned for a crossing offence.

The second half started scrappily and, as Stortford failed to capitalise on two turnovers, they allowed the home side to enjoy a period of confidence-building possession and territory, playing into the increasingly strong wind. Within 5 minutes, the hosts took a 2 point lead, when they pushed a Stortford 5 metre scrum off the ball and forced their way over for a converted try. The visitors again struggled to retain possession for any length of time and eventually, despite a scrappy home lineout inside Stortford's 22, the Rotherham forwards managed to scramble the ball back and two phases of their characteristic hard, straight running, as the ball was moved twice from wing to wing, saw them in for an unconverted try and a 7 point lead with 22 minutes gone. Stortford's attacking game now suddenly burst into life, with Thacker breaking away from a lineout close to halfway to make 20 metres before feeding Cullen with a flashy back-handed offload and the flyhalf in turn fed Hankin who was able to jink and force his way through the final defenders for a crucial try, well converted by Cullen with 13 minutes left. Stortford still struggled to control possession against the aggressive home side and it looked for all the world that the sides were going to have to settle for a draw until, with time almost up, the visitors finally put together a period of possession rugby and some more incisive running from the backs created an overlap for Josh Stannard to crash over out wide. Cullen's excellent conversion was the last act of a real blood and thunder match, fought out by two totally committed sides.

The crucial 5 league points won by the Firsts, with home wins for the Mitres, Chindits and Abbots and a successful floodlit U12s Festival at the Club made for a great day for BSRFC!

Team: Hankin, Stannard, Winter, Ayrton J, Smith, Cullen, Banks T; Castiglione, King, Sassone, Thacker, Lewis, Ball, Elsom, Kingham. Replacements: Huppatz McCrone, Banks R, Gliksten, Linney.