Canterbury 10 Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 22

Staying true to their running rugby principles, despite the steady rain and blustery wind, Stortford dominated the early proceedings and it was no surprise, when Sam Winter touched down after 9 minutes, following a great break through midfield by Nick Hankin from a tapped free kick around the halfway line. Tom Coleman’s conversion attempt flew only narrowly wide. His side were again, though careless in conceding a number of penalties at breakdowns in midfield positions and two in succession gave Canterbury a 5 metre lineout, from which they drove over the line to level the scores via a try to skipper, Tom Sherson after 15 minutes. The rest of the half was mostly a tussle between Stortford’s all-field running game and Canterbury’s aggressive rush defence, with neither being able to establish a clear dominance. As the half went on, though the home side started to give away an increasing number of penalties of their own and Coleman twice punished them with three-pointers after 32 and 39 minutes, each following breakdown offences. With a bit of luck, their lead could have been wider, but a great chip kick by Coleman into space just short of the Canterbury line was knocked on, as Jono Child tried to gather the difficult bouncing ball. Yet another breakdown offence by the home side’s No 1 after 46 minutes proved too much for the referee, who produced a yellow card. The half ended without further score, leaving the visitors 5-14 up.

Stortford started the second period strongly and went through dozens of phases involving both forwards and backs - very impressive in the continuing bad weather. Eventually, after 5 minutes, Canterbury were probably happy to settle for conceding only three points, when they offended at a breakdown right under their own posts. Three minutes later and the tide really seemed to have turned against the home side, when their No 7 was sin-binned for throwing a punch. Only 5 minutes had elapsed, however, before the tables were turned, as Sean Edwards was shown a red card for careless use of the boot at a ruck. Canterbury sensed an opportunity to win a game they had hardly been in for most of the match and, with their strong forwards finding renewed vigour, their close-indriving game quickly took them onto the attack and it was another driving maul that brought their second try to take them within seven points of 14-man Stortford. Fortunately for the visitors, the conversion attempt from virtually under the posts was missed, as Hankin and Tom Banks charged at the kicker. This effort was typical of the fighting spirit that the whole side now showed, as they first repelled some more determined attacks from Canterbury - notably a superb last ditch cover tackle by Banks on Canterbury’s big right wing, as he dived for the line - and then got back onto the attack with some more adventurous handling. This adventure was rewarded after 23 minutes of the half, when the ball was swung wide, after good ground had been made down the left by the forwards and a great long pass by Coleman found Mike Gallagher in space on the right wing and his sure hands and pace took him over for a try out wide. Although the difficult conversion attempt again went wide, the 12 point cushion proved to be enough. Indeed, Gallagher was unlucky some 10 minutes later, having burst through the heart of Canterbury’s defence to be caught by a cover tackle only inches short of the line. The home side continued to press, however, against Stortford’s 14 men, but apart from coming close from one deft chip kick, they didn’t really look like breaking down a very determined defence. The final whistle was nevertheless greeted with glee by a weary, but justifiably proud Stortford team, who had shown huge commitment and a lot of skill in very difficult conditions.

Next up are table-topping Taunton, who won’t be relishing their visit to Silver Leys next week, after we came so close last season to robbing them of their unbeaten home record in a titanic drawn match.