Bishops Stortford As v WASPS As

After a long and rainy trip from West London to the depths of Hertfordshire one could be forgiven for thinking that the Wasps A team would start slowly but after a very positive warm up this was certainly not the case. The Captain for the day, Jamie Dunbar won the toss and chose to go with the wind and it was very much one way traffic for the first few minutes. A great run from Nate Thiede-Palmer straight from the kick off pushed the Wasps team deep into the Bishops Stortford half. Another surging run from Alex Sharpe-Neal drove the away team into their opponents 22 and it was disappointing that a quickly taken penalty from Wasps did not result in points, rather a strong run from the home team pushed Wasps back out to the half way line. Bishops Stortford soon got to grips with the match and their strong 11 was unlucky to be tackled by Leo Currie playing on the right wing, after a powerful run down the left. The playing conditions were certainly not improving but Wasps continued to pressure and despite some strong resistance in the scrums some outstanding offensive tackling on both the Scrum Half and the Fly half from Gus Baker put the home side back into their 22.

Bishops Stortford had to resort to a kick out of their own defensive position and a great catch from full back Yusef Ahmed followed by a returning run into the opposition soon led to a Wasps try as some great handling and a mesmerising run from Number 8 Yamoto Bando put him over the line for a 5 to nil lead. The conversion was missed. Bishops Stortford came back hard following up a fumbled catch from Wasps, but Wasps defense held and further powerful tackles from the back row of Yamoto and Gus rocked the home team.

However Bishops Stortford soon benefited from the pressure taking a quick tap penalty after a ruck infringement. A great tackle from Fergus McWilliams on his opposite number seemed to stop the move but the ball was soon recycled and the home teams fly half managed to scamper over in the left hand corner to level the score at 5 to 5, this conversion also missed. After the restart Wasps were unlucky not to score after running back strongly. Half time came and at a level score there was everything to play for.

In the second half Wasps played into the wind and the rain, which was not relenting and some strong running by Bishops Stortford soon put Wasps back under pressure. Some great tackling from Luke Philipson who had come on for Fergus in the second half pinned the home side back and Wasps soon seemed to get their act together up front with some more consistent scrummaging. Wasps attacked hard with strong runs from defence by Jamie Dunbar and Theo Such and spent some considerable time camped in the home sides half but failed to score. The conditions proved very challenging as knock on followed knock on from both sides and scrum followed scrum – it was always going to be a forwards day. From their own half Bishops Stortford ran hard at the Wasps team and managed to put their winger away in the right corner. The try was certainly controversial as a rather confused linesman who had flagged for touch then changed his mind. Despite this the try stood and was in all probability a fair reflection of the pressure. The try was not converted leading to a score of 10 to 5 in favour of the home side.

Wasps defense was required to work very hard over the course of the next 15 minutes and good tackling from Laurence Hill and Liam Munro certainly helped to keep things manageable. Wasps tried hard to find a way through their opposition but this was not to be and it wasn’t long before the final whistle arrived with Bishops Stortford emerging as victors.

It was a tough and equal game and perhaps a draw would have been a fairer reflection of the pressure and territory from both sides but Wasps were beaten on the day. Having said that we were delighted to be so welcomed afterwards by the home team who made a great effort to get the boys involved in what can only be described as traditional rugby socialising. Thank you.