Rare Loss For Cheshunt

From the start Stortford looked the side that was more 'up for it' and,
whilst both scrum and line-out were fairly contested, it was Cheshunt's
inability to react at the breakdown that was leaving player's isolated and too often this resulted in turnover ball.

Cheshunt scored first with a nice inter-change between fly-half, Daniel
Cansick, and inside Centre, Scott Drew, off the back of a scrum from forty metres out. The Tank picked an excellent line, beat his opposite man and made good ground before picking out centre partner, Scott Glynn, who burst through the cover defence. With the full-back to beat it was flanker, Will Payne, who was on hand to receive a well-timed pass that had too much pace for the defender and gave the Nightmare a simple run-in to the corner - a breathtaking score leaving Cheshunt 5-0 up at half-time.

Stortford responded early in the second-half with a series of good
forward-drives that resulted in a penalty just outside the Cheshunt 22m
area. A kick to the corner and a solid catch and drive from the line-out saw them over, it was five-all and tensions were running high.

Stortford were able to make the most of infringements by Cheshunt at the
breakdown and mid-half gained good field position before slotting a
penalty-kick for three points to take the lead.

Whilst Cheshunt on-balance probably looked the side more likely to score
again, frustratingly for the home team, that was how the scores stayed.
Cheshunt had their fair share of chances, particularly in the last ten
minutes, but just could not seem to convert anything; too often going to
ground cheaply or unnecessarily forcing the play. With a missed touch-kick in the last five minutes wasting not only hard-fought territory but putting Cheshunt back a full fifty metres into their own 22m area, and then a missed penalty-kick, which would have tied the scores, Cheshunt were left feeling disappointed and Stortford no doubt mighty relieved.

On reflection, this was not Cheshunt performing at their best and, as a
spectacle at least, it was at times like watching a game of netball with the game being dominated by the whistle; a quite ridiculous penalty and
free-kick count for a game at this level that ultimately proved most costly to Cheshunt.

Good luck to Stortford in the semi-final.

Dave Mulholland