Canterbury 27 Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 31

Stortford came out firing on all cylinders and could easily have scored a couple of early tries, but for crucial handling errors close to the Canterbury line. Eventually, they had to settle for a Tom Coleman penalty goal after 18 minutes, when the home side were penalised for not releasing at a tackle. Stortford’s adventurous rugby continued to threaten and after 24 minutes was rewarded with the opening try to flanker, Steve Ball, exploiting a gap in the defence around the fringe of a maul to dummy his way clear to touch down under the posts. Coleman’s routine conversion stretched the lead to 0-10. The game was by no means one-sided, however and the home forwards, in particular often looked threatening with good offloading and support play, but Stortford’s defence was up to the challenge, with the whole side ready and able to make tackle after tackle. After 30 minutes though, Sam Winter found himself in the sin-bin, paying the price for a series of breakdown offences by his team, when he was penalised for entering the side of a ruck in Stortford’s 22. Canterbury’s flyhalf, Tom Best kicked the goal to reduce his side’s deficit, but this was more than cancelled out only 4 minutes later, when Nick Hankin, today playing at centre scored a brilliant solo try, jinking in and out past three Canterbury defenders off a pass from his No 8, Mark McCraith from the base of a scrum. Coleman’s unerring boot took the scoreline to 3-17, only for Best again to reduce the margin by 3, when Stortford again incurred the referee’s displeasure at a breakdown in front of their own posts. Once more, though the visitors responded with interest, as scrumhalf, Tom Banks scored another great individual try after 42 minutes, selling a dummy from the base of a ruck some 20 metres out and darting through the resultant gap to touch down. Coleman’s conversion on the stroke of halftime took the score at the break to 6-24, having “won” the 10 minutes’ sin-bin period 6-14.

Stortford’s adventurous rugby quickly demonstrated its downside as, playing up the slope and into the breeze, they tried to run the ball out of their own 22 from the restart and a stray pass in the centres led to a turnover and an instant penalty at the breakdown. Canterbury kicked for touch and drove a maul from the lineout over the line for a try, well converted by Best to immediately narrow his side’s deficit to only 11 points. With the strength of their forwards’ play in the first half and the elements now in their favour, it looked as if the visitors might be about to face a gruelling second period. Instead, though the team came back straight onto the attack, courtesy of a great take by winger, Johnny Neville from the restart, from which his side proceeded to run through numerous phases, stretching the home defence close to breaking point. Eventually, Canterbury managed to turn the tide, but were unable to retain sufficient possession against the strong-tackling visitors to pose any real threats of their own. A crucial turning point came after 15 minutes of the half, when Stortford hooker, Sam James ripped the ball off teammate, Chris Aldam, when the second row’s strong driving run had been halted some 5 metres from Canterbury’s line, to plunge over with great glee for the bonus point try close to the posts. Coleman’s conversion took the score to 13-31. Canterbury continued to show great determination and, although scarcely threatening to break Stortford’s stern defence, proceeded to grind their way repeatedly upfield – aided once again by a number of penalties at breakdowns. Two of these led to further 5 metre lineouts, each of which brought tries to the home team after 38 and 45 minutes. The second came direct from a drive off the lineout, but the first was scored close to the opposite touchline – albeit off a secondary drive by the forwards. Two excellent conversions by Best took the final score to 27-31, thus earning his side a bonus point sufficient at this stage to put Canterbury one point ahead of Ampthill in second place in the league.

The margin arguably flattered the home team, who had been outplayed for extensive periods of the game in what was possibly Stortford's best all round performance to date of what has been a great season.It was a tremendous win for the young Stortford side, built on great teamwork and a hugely strong team spirit, demonstrating clearly the tremendous progress made by the first team squad as a whole over the season. Congratulations to all the players and to their coaches!