London Irish Wild Geese 35 Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 37

The home side started brightly and exerted early pressure with a number of strong drives up the middle, which eventually forced a penalty at a breakdown on the Stortford 22, which flyhalf, Cole converted for a 3-0 lead after 5 minutes. It took another ten minutes before the visitors finally found some cohesion and strong thrusts by Sam Winter and Marcus Cattell set up a maul near the Irish line, from which second row, Dave Aldam was driven over for an unconverted try. Stortford were now into their stride and a try to Ross Bird followed midway into the half after a slick backs’ move put fullback, Nick Hankin into space, which he exploited clinically, driving some 20 metres before committing the final defender and setting his winger free to touchdown . Flyhalf, Ollie Walker made a good conversion. A significant turning point followed almost immediately, with an injury to Stortford prop, Rory Young, whose departure gave the home side a clear advantage in the scrum. Things started to look ominous, as Cole kicked another penalty after 27 minutes, when Richard Gill was penalised for coming through a ruck to tackle the Irish scrumhalf. Only two minutes later, though a decisive swing in fortunes came, when second row, Jon George charged down an attempted box kick by the home scrumhalf and followed up to force a Stortford lineout on the Irish line. A strong drive saw hooker, Scott Romaine touch down out wide and a tremendous Walker conversion took the scoreline to 6-19. Even better was to come though, as a sweeping move straight from the restart, started by a Romaine burst up the middle, involving fellow forwards handing on out of a number of tackles, taken on at great speed by the backs was rounded off with Hankin’s pace taking him over for Stortford’s bonus-point try - a great team try and an eighteen point lead after 31 minutes. Irish fought back, however and finally managed to make their superiority at the scrum count, forcing two penalties at set pieces under the Stortford posts, after the visitors had been turned over, trying to run the ball out of defence. An offence by substitute prop, Liam Caulfield at a third scrum saw him yellow-carded and the fourth scrum then, inevitably produced a home try, which Cole converted for a 13-24 halftime scoreline.

The deficit was reduced to 8 points almost immediately after the restart, when Stortford were penalised for side entry at a breakdown following a good scrumhalf box kick using the following breeze to good effect. Cole thumped the ball between the posts from almost halfway. With the home forwards continuing to dominate the scrums, even after Caulfield’s return from his yellow card, Stortford’s lead looked anything but secure. A try to centre, Sam Winter stepping in onto a great short pass from Cattell 11 minutes into the half to slice through under the posts and another Walker conversion, however, moved the visitors out to a 16-31 lead. This was extended by another 3 points to Walker 4 minutes later, when skipper, Richard Gill got quickly over the ball as Irish were tackled on their 22 and forced a penalty for holding on. After 25 minutes, though the initiative swung back to Irish, who registered a converted try off the back of yet another dominant scrum. A little relief came Stortford’s way 5 minutes later, when the home side were penalised for killing the ball at a tackle and Walker stepped up to take another three points with an excellent kick into the wind from over 40 yards out. With normal time running out, however Irish once again exploited their scrummaging strength to force another try off the back of a 5 metre scrum after some tremendous Stortford defence had held out a number of powerful thrusts from open play. To the great relief of the large number of Stortford supporters, the conversion attempt went narrowly wide, meaning that a repeat of last week’s draw was not possible. Maybe the team had the same thoughts and, having forced their way deep into the Irish 22, instead of looking to close the match down, they went for the jugular, only to see Hankin tackled into touch by a great last-ditch effort right on the home line. All credit to Irish, with injury time effectively run out they then embarked on a period of 15 man interpassing and support that swept them the full length of the pitch, where they were rewarded with an instant penalty try for a Stortford “lazy runner” deemed to have prevented a certain try. This single score produced two valuable bonus points for the home side and the conversion immediately before the final whistle took the closing score to a breathtaking 35-37.