From the word go, Stortford's fifteen man running rugby had the home side stretched and, despite early mistakes, the visitors took a well-deserved lead after 10 minutes, when Mark McCraith touched down at the back of a driving scrum. Tom Coleman's conversion stretched the lead. As the tight five continued to dominate, more Stortford pressure ensued and a quick penalty and dart by Tom Banks set up great position and quick hands saw Jimi Stanford crashing over for a try after 15 minutes, crowning an excellent half for the prop. Coleman's attempted conversion flew narrowly wide, as it did some 6 minutes later after another try to Matt Tomlinson, enjoying a storming game and rounding off a forward drive initiated by a first thrust from Sean Edwards. Lydney were seeing little of the ball, as Stortford went through phase after phase, often starting in their own 22 and took only another 4 minutes for Sam Winter to score the fourth, bonus point try, stepping in from the left wing and leaving a number of home defenders in his wake. Coleman's conversion took his side's lead out to 24 points. As the first half was coming to a close, Steve Ball got the fifth try, bursting over from the back of a driving maul off a 5 metre lineout, earned via a penalty won by the pack at a Lydney scrum on the halfway line. Coleman was now starting to suffer from a stretched hamstring, so Mike Gallagher took the tricky conversion attempt, which just missed, leaving the halftime score at 0-29.
Lydney started the second period with renewed vigour and, with Coleman soon followed by Johnny Neville onto the injured list, after a clash of heads, the visitors' rhythm suffered a little. Nevertheless, it was they who were next on the scoreboard again, with a try to Nick Hankin after 18 minutes, following another sharp break by Banks. Gallagher added the two points to stretch the lead to 36 points, but the home side were undaunted and came firing back. They were denied a try only by a knock on inches short of the Stortford line, in the face of strong defence but the visitors' attempt to run the ball out of trouble cost them dear, after a turnover was conceded and one missed tackle allowed the home side to touch down close to the posts for a converted try after 22 minutes. Home spirits were greatly lifted only 4 minutes later, when a volleyed flyhack off a loose ball landed beautifully under the Stortford posts, bounced up nicely for an attacking chaser and one pass created an easy try out wide, though the conversion was missed. Stortford were stung into action and a neat chip by Marcus Cattell (on at halftime for Coleman) was gathered on the bounce by Hankin in the Lydney 22, who jogged in for his second try after 29 minutes, leaving Gallagher with an easy conversion to take his side's finishing score to 43 points. Lydney once again, though surged onto the attack and managed to go through several phases to create a good try out wide, to which an even better conversion was added to take the score to 19-43 after 38 minutes. Sniffing the possibility of a 4-try bonus point, the home side really had their tails up and, when Stortford's Liam Caulfield was yellow-carded for clumsily colliding with the receiver of the restart kick, they drove into the visitors' 22,where Steve Ball was also sin-binned for handling in a ruck. Lydney were in no mood to look this particular gift horse in the mouth and drove over for a well-deserved fourth try to take the final score to 24-43.
This was an impressive performance by Stortford, with the final scoreline probably not fully reflecting their all-round superiority for the vast majority of the game. It is to be hoped that the breakdown to their coach early in the homeward journey did not put too big a damper on the day for the team - at least they were stranded close to a pub and the good news of a memorable win for the Blues at Richmond in their top of the table clash will have provided some added cheer to their wait!.