Despite playing into a strong wind, Blackheath went 3 points ahead in the first minute, after Stortford were penalised almost straight from the opening dropout. Within 2 minutes, though, Stortford took the lead with an unconverted try to Alex Gilham, after a quickly taken penalty had stretched the home defence. The gap was extended to 9 points seven minutes later, when Alex Rayment touched down after a good spell of Stortford pressure and Dan Powell had drawn in the last defender. Chris Bolton made an excellent conversion from the touchline. The home side bounced back with their own unconverted try with 15 minutes gone, when, with scrumhalf, Jordan Burns pulling the strings, they clinically exposed Stortford’s lack of cover down the short side to give the right wing a clear run in. A long Tom Mills penalty goal on 21 minutes took the visitors 7 points up, but the deficit was narrowed to only 2 seven minutes later from a driven lineout maul, after a big Stortford error, carrying the ball out of their 22 before kicking directly into touch. A sustained spell of Stortford pressure, built around a dominant scrum was frustrated by stout Blackheath defence and the visitors settled for a Chris Bolton penalty goal. Unable to clear their lines from the restart kick, however, Stortford invited the opposition onto them again and three strong thrusts stretched the defence, capitalised on to the full by a clever grubber kick, which allowed the left wing to gather the ball and go over untouched for a try. The conversion, as first half time ran out, took Blackheath into the break ahead for the first time – albeit by only 2 points.

Burns demonstrated perfectly within 2 minutes of the restart how to exploit the strong following wind, putting a long rolling 50-22 kick to within 5 metres of Stortford’s line. The visitors were soon penalised and Blackheath added 3 points to their tally. The visitors seemed to have a let-off after 51 minutes, when an easy penalty shot crashed against an upright, but a further successful shot 3 minutes later stretched the home lead to 8. This became 15 after a further 3 minutes, when another kick straight into touch put Blackheath on the front foot and more, forceful, driving rugby took them to a ruck on Stortford’s 22. Quick thinking by their hooker took him through a gap in the cover defence directly behind the breakdown to scamper over under the posts with 20 minutes to go. A great solo try from replacement scrumhalf, Declan Murphy only 3 minutes later brought Stortford back into the game, stepping his way over from 30 metres out. David Hayes added the 2 points, but his side looked to be out of the game, when 2 further penalties were added after 65 and 70 minutes by Blackheath’s Tom Fitch, as his side piled on the pressure. Undaunted, though, Stortford fought back and managed again to string some fluid handling together to test the opposition defence. This was rounded off with Murphy again sprinting over from 20 metres out for the 4th, bonus point try. Hayes again added the crucial conversion to narrow the deficit to 7 points, but the resultant second bonus point looked vulnerable, with any penalty within Stortford’s half liable to cost three points. Although Stortford finished the stronger, threatening briefly to level the scores, Blackheath countered and the visitors were content in the end to settle for the 2 points.