CAMBRIDGE 19 – 21 BISHOP’S STORTFORD

Cambridge fell to a late and unexpected defeat to National One near-neighbours Bishop’s Stortford in a typically harem-scarem encounter between the two sides at Grantchester Road.

Richie Williams’ squad contained 9 new additions, and the many in-game changes certainly disrupted the momentum of the home side as they bed in the new boys ahead of the start of the Championship.

Stortford always front up and love to run the ball making them perfect opposition – and they had their fair share of a feisty first half. Cambridge took the lead through a beautiful nudge from Joe Tarrant, finished by Eli Caven in the corner. But the visitors fought back to take the lead through Jack Biard, with Mike Cook converting.

Skipper for the day Louis Grimoldby then found Caven again with a cross kick in his own 22 – and last season’s top scorer for the Blood & Sand raced three-quarters of the field to touch down under the sticks. Grimoldby converted for a 12-7 half time lead. And it looked, then, that the Blood & Sand would kick on given the strength on the bench. Ruaridh Dawson shone at scrum half, Zach Nearchou at prop and Jack Bartlett at number eight – and there was a clear up-turn in strength and depth of personnel.

In the second half, however, the hosts let three or four tries go begging – though debutant Pete White crossed after some phenomenal interplay in an end-to-end move. But uncontested scrums owing to Stortford’s lack of front row cover caused more disruption to the Cambridge game plan. And the visitors, to their credit snatched the win late on through tries from Harrison Langworthy and Chris Bolton. A last ditch drop goal attempt from Arthur Lennon went wide but there was much to admire, and much to work on, for Williams coaching team ahead of the trip to Cardiff RFC next week.