Although clearly not the result that the Lions wanted, a very young and inexperienced side will have learnt a lot from their first taste of National 1 rugby.

Due to former player Ed Sumpter's wedding alongside injuries to a number of senior players, head coach Gareth Collins took a squad that included just 6 players with any national league experience.

The home sided started at a blistering pace, understandably buoyed by the minutes applause to mark the tragic passing of a former player. The Lions defended resolutely but eventually were broken when Stortford's hooker, Alex Rayment picked-and-went from a ruck to cross under the posts. Converted by Mike Cooke. It was only 4 minutes later when the hooker touched down again, this time at the back of a driving maul from a 5 meter lineout after Mack Welsh was penalised for not rolling away at a breakdown. Cooke again added the difficult conversion for an early 14-0 lead.

The home side continued to dominate both territory and possession as the Lions struggled to secure any first phase ball. Although they defended sternly, they finally conceded a third try in the 27th minute when flanker Harrison Langworthy crashed over from the base of a try-line ruck. Cooke again converting (21-0 ).

The Lions got in to the Stortford 22 twice in the latter stages of the opening period. Firstly some good hands released 18 year old winger George Pearson chipped ahead but his kick drifted in field and was dotted down by a covering defender before he could get there. Then in the final minutes of the half the Lions drove from a 5 metre lineout but their driving lineout was agonisingly held up over the line.

HT 21-0

Once again it was the home side that started the second half on the front foot and were rewarded within a minute with a try to Cooke, who went over in the corner, after a clean break up the middle by Stortford's impressive number 8 Will Rogers. Cooke was unable to convert from out wide this time (26-0).

The Lions were securing more set-piece ball in the second half and were looking dangerous out wide, but it was the home side who scored again, Rayment securing his hat-trick try from another driving maul. Cooke converted. (33-0).

Despite the scoreline the young Lions never gave up and in fact continued to grow in to the game. For the last quarter they enjoyed most of the ball and continued to look threatening. When Stortford's Harrison Langworthy was shown a red card for a high tackle after 65 minutes, the Lions finally started to find space in the home side's defence. Continuing their scoring form from last week wingers Jake Sterland, on his 50th appearance, and Jack Edwards both profitted from clever attacking kicks from Luke Bouchier and Joe Brock respectively. Bouchier converted one of the two scores that were seperated by a successful Cooke penalty kick.

FT 36-12

Head coach Gareth Collins commented: ''A really tough day but our boys will learn a lot from it. We've been able to blood a lot of our wider squad today which will have given them valuable experience. I actually think some of the young lads really stepped up and did themselves proud today. Stortford had a lot of the ball and so we showed really good character to make it as hard as we did for them to break us down. We found our way in to the game, which was not easy, and started to show how dangerous we can be if we have ball. Not the result we were after obviously but a lot of positives given the circumstances.''