Bishop’s Stortford beat Championship side Cambridge 21-19 in pre-season friendly

Three converted tries helped Bishop’s Stortford come from behind to win 21-19 at Championship side Cambridge in a pre-season friendly on Saturday (August 24), writes Dave Walker.

The bank holiday weather played true to form, marking a wet and overcast start at the Ellgia Fields.

The hosts, who play their rugby in England’s second tier, started strongly, camping in Stortford’s 22 and exercising patience in the greasy conditions, going through the phases until a well-threaded kick through put left wing Eli Caven in at the corner. The conversion was missed.

Stortford’s response came swiftly after the restart. Despite some weather-induced handling errors from both sides, the visitors worked their way into Cambridge’s red zone and, after a number of purposeful power plays from the forwards, centre Jack Biard found a seam to dart in just to the right of the posts. Fly-half Mike Cooke converted.

If the first two scores were workman-like, Cambridge’s second try was anything but. A pinpoint cross-field kick from the right wing found Caven on the opposite touchline and he proceeded to cut infield from his own 22-metre line, showing some blistering pace to bag his second try under the posts and put the home side 12-7 up at the break.

The game restarted with fresh showers which saw the ball continue to be slippery. Stortford’s pack were giving a good account of themselves at scrum time until injury forced off tight-head Josh Cilia, necessitating uncontested scrums for the rest of the match.

The match remained finely balanced, with a third try for Cambridge followed up by a powerful carry from Stortford flanker Harrison Langworthy to finish some more patient approach work from Tom Coleman’s men and cut Cambridge’s lead to five points.

And it was Stortford who held their nerve as scrum-half Chris Bolton closed out the game with his side’s third converted try.

Even the sun put in a late appearance to add a bit of additional gloss to an entertaining contest and a good test for Stortford, who return to Cambridgeshire on Friday evening (August 30, 7.45pm) for their last pre-season encounter at Shelford.