Stortford held the lead for all but 3 minutes of this high-scoring game, but Dings bounced back repeatedly to stay in the fight and give Stortford’s supporters a nervy afternoon.
The home side went into an early 5 point lead, after Dings knocked on, trying to run the opening drop kick out of defence and, after forcing 2 penalties in quick succession, Stortford touched down through debutant hooker, Alex Osborn, bursting through the middle of a strongly driven maul from a 5m lineout. Within 4 minutes, Dings replied with their own try, touched down by wing, Solomon O’Brien-Taufa after ball from their own 5m lineout was swung quickly wide. Sam Berry added the conversion – as he did for every subsequent Dings try – to take his side briefly into the lead. Another 5m lineout after 13 minutes, though, saw Alex Rayment driven over for Stortford and Dan Cole this time added a good conversion. Stortford added further converted tries after 20 and 22 minutes. James Apperley finished off a good move from a long pass out wide from Tom Hitchcock to Alex Rayment who drew the last man and fed his fellow backrow and Tom Mills leapt high to win a high kick from Cole and sprint clear for a tremendous solo try, with Cole adding the extras. Dings bounced back with a try close to the fringe of another 5m lineout drive 5 minutes later. Rayment was yellow-carded for an infringement in the build-up, but Stortford, nevertheless scored next only 2 minutes later, when Jake Morris won the race to touch down a clever kick from Alex Gilham, after he had broken through the middle to commit the last defender. The visitors countered immediately, exploiting a badly-missed tackle out wide for Lewis O’Grady to sprint in from halfway. This was just one of a number of telling contributions from the replacement fullback.
33-21 at halftime and the second period followed a similar pattern, though producing a mere 40 points. Each side scored a further 3 tries, but Berry’s faultless conversions edged the half for the visitors. It took them only 2 minutes to register their first try, with a break through the middle of a ruck around halfway catching the home defence napping and O’Grady again on hand to take the scoring pass. Dings immediately returned their hosts’ generosity by turning the ball over in their own 22 from the restart kick, allowing Fraizer Kiff to seize on the ball and force his way over for an unconverted try. 10 minutes later and Stortford seemed to have given themselves some breathing space on the scoreboard. After they took a scrum under the visitors’ posts, rather than the 3 points on offer from a penalty, Chris Bolton took the ball open, but then passed back behind the scrum to give Tom Hitchcock room on the short side, which he exploited to the full, stepping and forcing his way over for a great individual try. The 17 point lead was cut to 10, though, within a minute, when the bounce from a high chip kick favoured Dings. There followed 20 full minutes without any score, but Stortford had rather the better of the exchanges, with Dings’ No 6 shown a yellow card for repeated team offences. It was the home side that then broke through, with Tom Mills winning the race to touch down a clever chip kick from Cole, playing under yet another penalty advantage inside the opposition 22. Within a minute, though, Dings once more responded with their own try, when an attacking chip kick from outside Stortford’s 22 bounced perfectly for the visitor’s one chasing player, wrong-footing in the process two defenders for a simple run-in.
Special thanks to Match Sponsors, Nockolds, continuing their very long-term support for the Club and to SB Civil Engineering for today’s Man of the Match award, which went to Damien Ducci for another all-action performance.
