Bishop’s Stortford lose 38-21 at National 1 leaders Richmond

Bishop’s Stortford battled hard before individual errors ultimately led to them losing 38-21 at National 1 leaders Richmond on Saturday (March 1).

Tom Coleman’s side went into the break 14-7 ahead and Tom Mills claimed a hat-trick of tries, but they returned home from the table-toppers empty-handed.

They are ninth in the standings, seven points clear of the bottom three, and entertain third-placed Rosslyn Park at Silver Leys this Saturday (March 8).

Stortford fought a tremendous rearguard action in the first half, getting out of their own half only three times as they spent the majority of the time pinned down in their own 22. Goal-line defence from the visitors was superb, forcing error after error out of the all-action hosts.

After only two minutes, a tremendous interception by Mike Cooke in his own 22 broke up a sequence of attacking phases from the home side and his kick ahead was perfectly judged, just about making the Richmond try line, where Mills won the race for the touchdown. Cooke kicked the conversion.

With Stortford struggling to string any possession together and the lineout spluttering, they had to soak up a lot more pressure on their line, but proved up to the huge challenges posed by the home side.

A great turnover by Sam Johnson on his own 22 caught Richmond off balance and a chip kick from Cooke bounced kindly for Mills, who gathered at full pace and was able to gallop clear for his second try under the posts, giving his fly-half an easy conversion.

With 24 minutes gone it looked as if the visitors had once again repelled a dangerous attack when Harrison Langworthy worked his way into the middle of a driving maul from Richmond’s five-metre lineout to win a scrum. The ball was duly won, but the home scrum-half seized on the ball as Will Rogers broke off and was able to dive over the line unchallenged.

The conversion halved his team’s deficit and gave renewed impetus to their stream of attacks, but Stortford dug deep and led at the break.

Stortford began the second period on the attack, but a poor kick chase allowed the home No 15 to break free and find a supporting back row, who galloped over for an equalising try. Worse was soon to come for the visitors as Richmond’s No 10 emulated Cooke’s first-half feat of intercepting a pass on his own 22 before having the pace to run clear and touch down himself for another converted try.

Richmond pressed again and, after Alex Gilham had been yellow-carded for a deliberate knock-on, quickly added their fourth seven-pointer through their No 12.

Stortford took similar advantage of a swing in their favour in playing numbers when the hosts saw their 12 and 5 yellow-carded in quick succession – the former for a blatant and forceful high tackle that might easily have incurred a red.

Within a minute of the second card, Mills went over under the posts for his hat-trick after his pack had sucked in the defence with a couple of strong drives from a five-metre lineout.

However, Stortford managed to squander the remainder of their numerical advantage and allowed Richmond to dominate possession and add three points from a breakdown offence penalty.

The remainder of the game was dominated by the home side, who finally managed to turn a period of forward pressure into a try after 74 minutes to seal the result.

Stortford battled to try to score a fourth try that would have earned a bonus point, but were unable to break down a strong home defence.

Stortford: Hayes, Stannard, Mills, Biard, Gilham, Cooke, Bolton; Hill, Rayment, Peck, Ferguson, Kiff, Langworthy, Jones, Rogers. Replacements: Moffitt, Smith, Brownhill, Johnson, Powell.