Bishop’s Stortford U14 A’s v Teddington.

The first league game of the season saw Stortford’s under 14’s A Team get off to a great start. From the kick off a clearly fired up team quickly put the visitors under pressure. Sustained driving by the pack, with the backs making progress and good recycling of the ball saw the boys putting immediate pressure on oppositions try line. From the base of a ruck, Radley pick up and drove through the defense for the opening score. Lilley completed the scoring and Stortford were quickly seven points to the good. It was clear that Stortford were facing determined opposition. The boys put together good phases of play, with moves interchanging between the forwards and the backs. Some good switch play and hands along the line well supported by Forbes whose pass to Civil saw him go other for the second try.

Stortford did not have everything there own way and from the kick off a loss ball allowed Teddington gain possession. The Stortford defense held out well until they conceded a penalty. Teddington took the penalty and three points and were now on the scoreboard.

Stortford responded with some excellent play, gaining possession from the re start. The ball was quickly driven on and spun out to the backs. Quick hands from Hopkinson, Keen and James presented an opportunity for the supporting Forbes who ran through the resulting exposed defense. A successful conversation from Lilley took the score to 19-3.

There was still time in the first half for the boys to strike again. Again powerful play by the forwards saw Forbes drive over for his second try. A successful conversion from Lilley and at half time the score was 26-3.

The second half saw all the replacements for Stortford get their chance. To their credit Teddington got off to a quick start and good hands saw them take advantage of an overlap to score their first try. Stortford responded with a great try from Civil. A ball won at a line-out and quickly sent won the line, found Civil with some broken play in the middle of the park. He had a number of defenders to negotiate, but with speed and change of direction they could not land a hand on him and he went in under the post. It was described as Civil “doing his thing”. The try was converted by Lilley. Again Teddington showed they had come to play when they gained good yardage and were awarded a scrum near Stortford’s try line. From the base of the scrum and with some direct running that got their second try in the corner.

It was Stortford who were to have a final say. After some scrappy play in the middle of the park, Stenhouse took possession and with direct running forced his way through the Teddington defense. When tackled he offload his pass which was collected at pace by Forbes and he ran in for the final try. Lilley converted. The boys put in a great team performance with a final score of 40-13.

Team Bennett, Civil, Crafford, Clarke-Scholes, Crowhurst , Dan, Davies, Etheringtn, Euen, Forbes (capt) Guy-Walters, Hopkinson, James, Keen, Lilley, Munro, Pearce, Radley, Stenhouse, Solomon, Wells,
Willis.