Exmouth 20 Bishop's Stortford 21

After the disappointments of last week’s performance, Stortford started this game positively and dominated early possession and territory, but strong tackling by Exmouth prevented any score until 12 minutes when, in a rare incursion into opposition territory, it was the home side that registered a penalty through flyhalf, Rob Avery-Wright. Almost straight from the restart, though Stortford forced a scrum in the Exmouth 22 and a good break off the set piece by flanker, Steve Ball found skipper, Tom Coleman and No 8, Mark McCraith in good support for the latter to crash over for a try, giving Coleman an easy conversion after 15 minutes. The quality of rugby tailed off thereafter and it was the home side that next troubled the scorers with a good forwards’ try, driving from a lineout deep in the visitors’ 22, after Stortford’s defence out wide had been caught napping to set up the position. Avery-Wright’s conversion took his side to a 10-3 lead after 28 minutes. Some 8 minutes later, Stortford finally worked some space, exploiting well a two-on-two on the short side of a scrum on the Exmouth 22, with McCraith passing direct from the base to fullback, Nick Hankin, who first threatened his own break and then give winger, Harry Marner just enough space to dive in for a try in the corner. The conversion went narrowly wide, leaving the score at 10-12, which is how the half ended.
This proved to have been another rare instance of coordinated attacking rugby, with the rugby in the second half, if anything, being even more disjointed than that of the first. One brief exception occurred 5 minutes into the half, when some good work by Stortford’s backs gave Hankin a clear run at the line, but he was pulled down only inches short of the try-line. Some tremendous defence from Exmouth – which they showed throughout - held out several further thrusts at their line over the next few minutes, but finally conceded a penalty at a scrum, where the visitors, with replacement props, Sean Edwards and Rory Young, brought on at halftime appeared now to have an edge. Coleman made no mistake with a relatively easy shot at goal. Momentum swung against Stortford with what seemed to be a rather harsh yellow card against centre, Jono Child for a deliberate knock-on after 11 minutes, even though the shot at goal from the resultant penalty flew wide. The reprieve didn’t last long, though, because Avery Wright made no mistake with another penalty goal 3 minutes later, after Stortford had gifted his side the ball with a badly overthrown lineout. The visitor’s game became increasingly littered with mistakes, depending on individual moments of skill for any headway that was made. One of these, involving a deft pick-up of a sharply bouncing loose ball and a great drive into the heart of Exmouth territory by McCraith brought a scrum in the 22, when the No 8’s unsympathetic pass to supporting scrumhalf, Arran Mahoney was knocked on. Once again, the referee took exception to the home side’s scrummaging and Coleman slotted the three points to put his side 5 points ahead after 27 minutes of the half. As Stortford’s error count rose, a stubborn home team gained more and more confidence and a succession of driving mauls from 5 metre lineouts and two penalties brought first a yellow card for Steve Ball and then a try to Exmouth from the next maul. An excellent conversion by Avery-Wright took his side to a 20-18 lead, with the visitors having to play out the rest of the game a man short. Showing their own determination to battle back, Stortford forced their way back into the Exmouth half. With time almost up, it looked as if their final chance had gone, when a scum was awarded to Exmouth after Hankin, running back a loose kick was held up in the tackle. Here again, though the referee deemed the Exmouth front row to have committed an offence, giving Coleman a very testing shot at goal from some 35 metres out and across a very tricky breeze. Fortunately for Stortford, the skipper held his nerve brilliantly to kick the three points and steal the match for his side by one point with what turned out to be the last act of the match.

A highly committed and determined Exmouth side will consider themselves unlucky to have lost this match, which they contested extremely hard from first to last and, in particular, they tackled like demons. For their part, Stortford will be looking to lift their game considerably for next week’s difficult trip to Taunton, where they will want to produce much more of the excellent team rugby seen before the weather break - which has taken them into the higher reaches of the league.