Your reporter has had occasion already this season to question the effectiveness of a cunning plan based on allowing your opponents to take a sizeable lead before slowly trying to reel them in ( v Guernsey 48-49 after 0-24) .

Cunning plan number two was on display at Silver Leys against Bishop's Stortford last Saturday : this time it involved the Stags conceding any sort of controlled line-out ball. It had to be deliberate surely? What else could be reponsible for the metamorphosis of last year's relatively well oiled machine into a misfiring old banger? All joking aside, the Stags were truly lamentable in this department and yet they still earned the plaudits of the home side whose report of this match describes them as the toughest opposition so far encounterd by them all season : the toughest with one arm tied behind their backs that must be.

That praise was based rather more on the Stags' second half performance than their first and they did indeed finish the stronger side. There was little to cheer the visiting supporters early on, with the first CS line-out throw lost and the second, third and fourth secured only by dint of scrappy tap-backs. It was Stortford who were doing most of the attacking and it looked as if their new coach, ex Blackheath, Wasps, London Welsh and Swansea prop, Steve Pope, had had an impact on their scrummaging also as the home side - this though at least was to change in the second half - had the initial edge in that department too. They opened the scoring after 18 minutes with a converted try following a line-out drive and CS had been decidedly second best, albeit resolute in defence, until then.

The Stags then began to look more dangerous, particularly on the counter : one promising break-out came to nothing when a pass went forward and not long afterwards it took a good tackle to bring Paul Olima down. Then on the half hour Stortford were penalised for preventing release and Scott Hadden knocked over the penalty. Not long afterwards Stortford lost a man to the bin for a similar offence and, their defensive patterns perhaps upset, wing James Houstuon was able to capitalise on 37 minutes , cutting back on the angle and wrong footing an entire phalanx of defenders. With the conversion from Scott Hadden the Stags now held a 10-7 lead that could hardly be said to fairly reflect the totality of the exchanges thus far.

A cardinal sin - having wrested such an improbable advantage - is to throw it away just before half time but that is just what the Stags did. Not for the first time this season they failed to gather the kick-off and put themselves under pressure. A breakdown infringement then saw flanker Joe Clarke dismissed to the bin although whether he was in fact responsible for the infraction is a moot point. The penalty went into the corner and from the line-out Stortford drove over and with that score- unconverted although both touche judges had a good look - they regained the lead : 12-10.

This they then extended with a penalty 10 minutes into the second half but the home side , who that morning were lying second in the table and who are now top, were not having things anything like nearly all their own way. Although the Stags' line-out was as erratic as ever, their set scrum was now a source of encoragement for them with the home side apparently in some disarray. As is often the way the power shift did not impress the referee initially who decided there must be some subterranean skullduggery involved and who pinged the visitors - apparently for not pushing straight. Soon his decisions were going the other way, however, and rewarding the apparently dominant scrum - but not before the home side had further extended their lead , courtesy of a further straight forward penalty awarded for not releasing, to give themselves an eight point cushion with 15 minutes now to go.

This score was conceded on one of what were now becoming increasingly rare visits to CS territory and indeed the last fifteen minutes saw CS very much on top, winning penalties but unable to really make them count because of the continuing unreliability of their line-out. With ten minutes still to go they did, however, succeed in reducing the deficit to just one point after Houstoun had supported twinkle-toed full back Brendan Ward's break to score under the posts. Stortford could not lift the siege but - with stern tackling and conceding no kickable penalties - just managed to hold out. They should have had more for their first half dominance but in the end could count themselves pretty lucky to have won - and what might have happened if only the Stags had had a functioning line-out?

Elsewhere top of the table and hitherto unbeaten Barnes went down to hitherto bottom of the table and winless and pointless Tring 28-20! This is an evenly matched league indeed and had Gravesend, who play the Stags at Duke's Medows next Saturday, not had a game postponed the previous week it might be the Stags rather than Gravesend now occupying the third as opposed to fourth from the bottom of the table slot! Being the best side that Bishop's Stortford have played against counts for very little : there will be much to play for and the Stags will be hoping for a change of fortune.

CS Rugby 1863 scorers:

Tries

Houstoun (2)

Cons

Hadden (2)

Penalty

Hadden