Bishop’s Stortford in the pink with National 1 status secured after eight-try 52-28 win over Esher
Bishop’s Stortford secured their National 1 status for another season with a 52-28 win at Silver Leys on Saturday against Esher – the only side in the bottom three at the start of play who could have caught them.
Playing in pink for the club’s annual Ladies Day, Tom Coleman’s side ran in eight tries – six of them converted – to make it back-to-back wins following their victory at bottom side Darlington the week before.
Hooker Alex ‘Razor’ Rayment repeated his feat from the season-opening 36-12 win against Leicester Lions at Silver Leys back in September by scoring a hat trick of tries.
The bonus-point win leaves Stortford ninth in the table of 14 on 54 points, five ahead of Sedgley Park (10th) and Dings Crusaders (11th), and, crucially, 16 points clear of Esher (12th with 38 points) who have only three matches remaining.
Stortford were slow to get scoring on Saturday, and it was the Surrey visitors’ skilful backs who took advantage of some generous defending by their hosts to register two early converted tries through winger Jonathan Keh and fly half Sam Morley.
But the home side steadily took charge through their stronger pack. Two tries to Rayment at the back of driving lineout mauls, both converted by scrum half Chris Bolton, levelled the scores at 14-14 after 23 minutes.
Stortford took the lead eight minutes later when Bolton sniped from the base of a ruck and chipped ahead for winger Alex Gilham to touch down. The No 9 converted, but he could not repeat the feat five minutes later after Rayment had completed his hat-trick at the end of some good handling by the backs to register the bonus-point try.
The hosts led 26-14 at half time, but Esher narrowed the deficit to five points after 52 minutes with a try from winger Ben Robbins, converted by Morley.
Stortford bounced straight back, though, with centre Jack Biard running in from 70 metres after wrong-footing the whole Esher defence with a huge dummy pass on his own 22. Winger Tom Mills landed the first of his three conversions to make it 33-21.
The hosts went further ahead when replacement scrum half Dec Murphy finished off after a great break up the middle by fly half David Hayes. Mills added the extras.
Esher fought back with a converted Keh try but Stortford ran away at the end with two more tries from lineout drives, scored by captain Will Rogers and replacement James Isaacs.
This Saturday (March 29), Stortford will be aiming to close to within two points of 8th-placed Birmingham Moseley (56 points) when they meet in a rearranged fixture at Silver Leys before their final three fixtures in April: away to seventh-placed Sale on the 5th, their final home match, against Dings, on the 12th and away to Leicester Lions on the 26th.
Bishop’s Stortford: Powell, Mills, Biard, Pope, Gilham, Hayes, Bolton; Smith T, Rayment, Peck, Charter, Kiff, Langworthy, Johnson, Rogers. Replacements: Hill, Brownhill, Isaacs, Smith C, Murphy.
Esher: Faulkner, Robbins, Donnelly, Rawstron-Rudd, Keh, Morley, Blackmore; Morris, Westmacott, Skoumbourdis, Cooke, Bullett, Sloan, Norris, Souto. Replacements: Vajner, Murphy, McClean-Nelson, Waters, Bradbury.
SCORERS
Bishop’s Stortford – Tries: Rayment 10, 23 & 35, Gilham 31, Biard 56, Murphy 62, Rogers 72, Isaacs 79. Cons: Bolton 11, 24 & 32, Mills 57, 63 & 80.
Esher – Tries: Keh 7 & 66, Morley 18, Robbins 52. Cons: Morley 8, 19, 53 & 67.
Referee: Alan Chandrachud. Star man: Harry Charter, Bishop’s Stortford. Attendance: 709.
