REDINGENSIANS 15 BISHOP’S STORTFORD 27
Jamie Guttridge’s red card cost Rams dearly as Stortford, trailing 10-7 at the break, hit back with four second-half tries.
The game had been nip-and-tuck up to 52 minutes then flanker Guttridge received his marching orders for alleged stamping.
Coach Mike Tewkesbury admitted: “Of course the sending-off didn’t help. Neither did the disruption caused by a spate of injuries.”
“On the plus side I was pleased by the way we stuck at it in the last 20 minutes. It showed the spirit we have in the team.”
Rams made the ideal start after seven minutes when they spun the ball out wide for Ollie Poole to go over. But the winger had to be replaced after injuring his knee in scoring.
In the first half Stortford were proving dangerous in the backs, but Rams posed the visitors problems in the scrummaging department.
Guttridge, always at the centre of the action, was yellow carded for a technical offence on the half hour. He prevented a try by coming in at the side of a maul.
At the next play, a catch and drive try from Tom Crozier gave the visitors the lead with Pier Dotta converting.
But Stortford’s Matt Tomlinson was sin-binned soon after for a similar offence and Rams took advantage with a James Baker touchdown.
In a game which saw the lead change five times, Dom Morris raced over for the Herts side early in the second half.
Yet immediately after Guttridge’s dismissal, Joe Duffelen’s 60-metre interception try restored Rams’ advantage at 15-12.
Then touchdowns from Richard Gill and Morris midway through the half swung the game decisively Stortford’s way.
Depleted Rams, having to reshuffle their back division through injuries, battled bravely to contain the opposition.
They held out until the closing minutes when a Gill try denied them a losing bonus point.
Rams: Duffelen; Poole, Bryant, Barnes, McDermottroe; Flower, Brown; Weller, Henderson, Baker, Taylor, Kerschbaumer, Guttridge, Nightingale, Kharbouch. Reps: Smith, Steadman, Kruzycki, Vooght, Hill.