Westcliff played out of their skins against a Bishop’s Stortford team that had won their last 14 matches — but still suffered a 19-13 defeat at the Gables.

Westcliff came into the clash on the back of two consecutive wins.

And they were initially on top against their in-form visitors.

Westcliff pushed hard but wasted some try-scoring opportunities before Stortford worked themselves upfield and through a rolling maul after a line out, bundled over for a try which was converted to make it 7-0.

But Westcliff were soon on the scoresheet too when inside-half Ben Jones fizzed through the Hertfordshire side’s defence to score a try that was not converted.

The score stayed at 7-5 to Stortford at half-time and Ben McKeith just failed to successfully kick a penalty at the start of the second period.

Stortford had no such problems and soon made it 16-5 with three penalty kicks. But Westcliff never gave up and managed to put Stortford back on their haunches, and at one scrum demolished the visiting eight before McKeith kicked a penalty.

However, the referee soon spotted another player offside and Stortford duly landed the penalty to make it 19-8.

With 20 minutes to go the Westcliff team played fast, attacking rugby and the powerful Stortford team had their work cut out to repel it. That led to Seb Reynolds touching down late on.

The team’s display was praised by Westcliff president Chris Bard, who said: “That was a very, very good performance by us.

“We played superbly at times and gave Stortford something to think about.”

Westcliff remain just above the relegation zone but are now just seven points ahead of Bracknell who beat Tring 28-3.