Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 43 Chinnor 12

A strong and determined Chinnor defence proved very difficult to break down and, despite early Stortford pressure, it was the visitors that scored first when, after a number of phases, they managed to create space for centre, Matt Goode to touch down out wide after 8 minutes. The same player had no difficulty in converting to put his side 7 points ahead. It took another 22 minutes for the home side to register their first score in the form of a try to scrumhalf, Tom Banks, touching down from a short pass from No 8, Mark McCraith from the back of a dominant five-metre scrum. George Cullen kicked the conversion and then, some 10 minutes later scored his side’s second try out wide from a position created by more strong Stortford scrummaging, which had culminated in a yellow card 2 minutes earlier to the Chinnor loose head prop. Cullen’s attempted conversion cannoned back from the far post to leave the score at halftime at 12-7.

Chinnor started the second half strongly by winning their opening dropout and built from there to level the scores after 8 minutes through another Goode try off a rejuvenated 5 metre scrum. Resilient tackling again by the visitors kept Stortford at bay for the next 14 minutes, but the home side showed remarkable self confidence in their game plan and were finally rewarded with a try to Sam Winter. He was in the right place to round off an excellent move set up by Nick Hankin, who made a lot of ground from a Chinnor defensive kick to find great support from substitute back, Jimmy Rea and Cullen to give their centre a clear sight of the line. Tom Coleman converted, as he did 6 minutes later, when Winter again touched down, from a well-timed short pass from Johnny Neville. This took the score to 26-12 and a yellow card to Chinnor’s replacement, Frank Jones some 7 minutes later for a cynical offence at a ruck in their own 22 effectively ended the visitors’ challenge. A minute later saw second row, Chris Aldam force his way through three defenders to score his side’s 5th try, as Stortford started to run the increasingly stretched Chinnor defence from side to side. Coleman kicked a good conversion and then made no mistake with a penalty from under the posts 4 minutes later, when play was called back after flanker, Richard Gill was stripped of the ball, as he dived for the line. A try would have been a great finish to a move created by a surging run through midfield by James Thacker, yet another product of Stortford’s junior rugby set-up, playing his first senior rugby and just on as a replacement in the back row for Mark McCraith, but it wasn’t to be. The final score of the game was a richly-deserved try for Nick Hankin, outpacing the cover defence to run in at the corner from some 30 metres out, when Rea gave him the necessary yard of space after running back a long kick out of defence by Chinnor. Coleman’s conversion took the final score to 43-12.

While the final scoreline perhaps didn’t reflect it, this was a hard-fought game, in which the unstinting and often unseen work of Stortford’s back row was absolutely crucial. The three players, although, on this occasion not figuring prominently in the lead-up to most of the tries, played a huge role in both defence and attack throughout the game and deserve collective recognition for their magnificent contributions. Well done, Mark, Steve and Gilly!