Bishop’s Stortford drop to second from bottom after 38-14 home defeat to Richmond in National League 1
Error-ridden Bishop’s Stortford suffered a 38-14 home defeat at the hands of Richmond in National League 1 on Saturday (February 3).
The relegation-threatened hosts, who have lost five games in a row, have dropped one place to second from bottom.
Marcus Cattell’s side, who are three points off safety and have nine matches left to escape the bottom three, are at home again this Saturday (February 10) when they entertain second-placed Rams.
The home side started brightly, but were frustrated by handling errors and were well and truly on the back foot after seven minutes when Chris Smith was yellow-carded for a deliberate knock-on on his own 22, even though there looked to be ample defensive cover.
Richmond took full advantage by scoring two converted tries during the sin-bin period. The first came from Patrick Case after a well-placed chip kick from Lewis Dennett and the second was scored by Alex O’Meara when Stortford were punished for losing an attacking lineout and their defence was stretched all too easily for the full-back to slide through a gaping hole. Dennett kicked the conversions.
Stortford bounced back as Austin Pope touched down from Dan Cole’s chip kick, with the fly-half converting.
The hosts ended the half on the front foot, despite a misfiring lineout, but failed to capitalise on a scrum penalty inside the opposition 22 when the shot at goal went wide.
Stortford started the second half strongly and quickly scored a try, with Pope touching down for the second time to level the scores.
Loose defence, however, allowed Richmond to bounce back immediately with their own unconverted try - O’Meara’s second - and from then on it was pretty much one-way traffic, with any occasional glimmers of hope for the home supporters quickly snuffed out by further errors.
The visitors ran hard, supported well and, most significantly of all, made few unforced mistakes and took their opportunities well, with their victory being sealed with three further tries in the last 16 minutes of the game.
A penalty for a tackle offence on Stortford’s 22 went to touch and Richmond’s pack had no difficulty in driving over from the resultant five-metre lineout.
Further errors at Stortford lineouts allowed the visitors to keep up the pressure, leading directly to the next try conceded when, despite taking the ball cleanly from the throw-in, they allowed marauding Richmond forward Barnaby Vaughan to take the ball from the hands of Stortford’s jumper and then simply flop over the line.
The final try came from a very fortunate bounce of a speculative kick from the arms of a leaping defender straight to the onrushing Luc Jones, who ran in untouched.
Bishop’s Stortford: Hankin, Morris, Biard, Pope, Smith, Cole, Bolton; Hill, Jackson, Peck, Kiff, Charter, Nicholls, Jones, Rogers. Replacements: Bury, Warren, Tierney, Walker, Gilham.
Richmond: O’Meara, Kaye, Cheeseman, Hitchcock, Case, Dennett, Marsh; Spring, Lloyd, Maggs, Murphy, Nugent, Massey, Monson, Bright. Replacements: Torpey, Vaughan, Wakeling, Jones, Bliss.
Scorers: Stortford - Tries: Pope 24, 44; Cons: Cole 25, 45. Richmond - Tries: Case 14, O’Meara 18, 46, Bright 64, Vaughan 71, Jones 78; Cons: Dennett 14, 18, Kaye 72, 79.
Referee: Owen Taylor.
Star man: Tom Hitchcock (Richmond).
Attendance: 300.
