Bishop’s Stortford make it back-to-back wins for first time this season by triumphing 31-14 at Esher in National 1

Bishop’s Stortford made it back-to-back wins for the first time this season by triumphing 31-14 at Esher in National 1 on Saturday (November 23).

Tom Coleman’s team ran in five tries to also claim a bonus point in a convincing performance and move up to seventh in the table.

They now have a weekend off before entertaining ninth-placed Sale FC at Silver Leys on Saturday December 7.

Starting with a strong wind at their backs, Stortford exerted early pressure and claimed an unconverted try after only four minutes against their 11-placed hosts.

The first thrust at the line was held up for a defending dropout, but they were quickly back on the front foot and, recovering a partially-blocked grubber kick from Dan Powell, Tom Mills and Jack Biard combined to beat a number of defenders for the latter to crash over.

Five minutes later and it was Sam Johnson who touched down for the visitors after more direct, multi-phase rugby in very testing conditions broke down the home defence.

Tristan Smith had been injured in the build-up, but his replacement Henry Peck did nothing to reduce his side’s dominance at scrum time.

With 17 minutes gone, more Stortford pressure resulted in a third try as Alex Rayment touched down at the back of a driving maul after a lineout 10 metres out. Chris Bolton added the conversion.

Unsurprisingly, both sides made numerous handling errors in the hostile weather conditions and, with hard tackling from both, scoring opportunities were limited.

Stortford continued to have the better of the exchanges, but it was only as first-half time was running out that they got a further converted try, with David Hayes reacting first to take a quick tapped penalty from another scrum penalty five metres out to dodge his way over and register the four-try bonus point.

Playing into the elements in the second period – with driving rain now added to the wind in their faces – the priority for Stortford was to try to control possession.

They managed to achieve this goal in an encouraging first few minutes, but a loose defensive kick, which was compounded when a good return kick from Esher was played on its way into touch, resulted in an attacking home lineout which they exploited to the full to touch down close to the posts.

The visitors bounced back and a crucial try was scored by Bolton after 52 minutes as he broke off the back of a driving maul after Austin Pope had come close from an attacking position created by a clever grubber kick from the same player.

With Johnson in particular making a real nuisance of himself at breakdowns, Stortford more than held their own for an extended period.

Ironically, it was from a particularly threatening run by Tom Mills, which took him close to the Esher line, that a loose offload allowed the ball to be hoofed far downfield, where a knock-on put the home side in possession inside the red zone.

Concerted pressure led to a five-metre lineout and the defence was caught on the hop by a quick break off the back of the resultant driving maul, with an Esher forward crashing over for the final try, converted by Tom Walker, on as replacement fly-half against his former club. But Stortford had no real difficulty in seeing out the remaining six minutes without further threat to their line.

Stortford: Hayes, Mills, Biard, Pope, Gilham, Powell, Bolton; T Smith, Rayment, Hill, Ferguson, Kiff, Langworthy, Johnson, Rogers. Replacements: Olver, Peck, Jones, Briers, Stannard.