In the most well attended fixture of the season, Gordano capitalised on an early mistake to take an early lead, which, after a flat warm up and quiet dressing room, was the wake up the 1st XV needed. Managing to turn the ball over in midfield, 16 phases were put together for Cullen Connors to finish wide in the corner. From there, it seemed to be fairly close even though we conceded several more tries. To counter this, Jon Whiteman bagged one from a driving maul at a line out and George Hazell also got over the line.

Despite OBs having a hugely dominant scrum, Gordano went to work and reached their total of 6 tries. With a never say die attitude, OBs turned it back on in the last five minutes with Rory Davis darting over the line to get within 14 points. The referee said there would be time for a kick off regardless of how long the conversion took. With some patient work from the team, George Hazell made another spectacular break and offload allowed Jamie Duncan to use some great footwork and strong running to score under the posts. Rory converted giving us a losing bonus point.

Some great shifts were put in, but best on park went to Matthew “Pikey” Douglas for his tireless efforts all over the pitch and huge tackle count.

Attendance: Probably 200,000+
Gordano 38 - 31 OBs

The 2s travelled to unbeaten league leaders Frampton Cotterell looking to right some wrongs following our worst performance of the season in the home leg. Due to that result, player-led tackling sessions were introduced along with changes to the warm up to instil a pride in our performance.

The game started with a lot of intensity from both sides, so much so that within 5 minutes the Frampton scrum half had been sent off for using head to make contact with an OBs' player. Before they'd had enough time to recover, we were in their 22 and, playing with advantage, George Morgan threw a two person miss pass to Magnus on the left wing who went over for his first try on league debut. This goodwill from the OBs' 9 wasn't to last long as, after Jonny got held up over the line and our pack drove Frampton's back 10m, George bagged his own 5 pointer by stealing it from the base and dotting down.

Almost all of the second half was spent defending, which led to 20 minutes of equal numbers as Max and Jack were both binned for offences at the breakdown. We weathered the storm incredibly well and the third try came a perfectly-timed run from Magnus who intercepted the ball then ran the length of the pitch for his second.

Highlights:
- Their replacement 9 screaming at his forwards because they were getting dominated and getting the response: "What do you want us to do? They're better than us."
- Tiny hearing their prop say: "let's do a cancel ball" as the hooker walked past to throw in then immediately stealing the line out.
- Everyone standing around watching Magnus run the length of the field assuming it was going to be an easy run in, then realising there was a danger of him being caught and suddenly trying to get after him
- Chop going for a drop goal
- Chop not getting that drop goal
- Beating the unbeaten top of the league at their ground after being comprehensively embarrassed at home
Frampton 5 - 19 OBs 2s

The 3rds ran out 54-19 winners against a Cotham 2s side. A strong warm up paid dividends once more with a fast start and an early try. This laid the foundations for a dominant display including an absolutely HUGE scrum and lineout with set a great platform for the backs to work off.

Try scorers were Asbel (x2) due to a couple of big pack efforts, Alec (x2) with his usual silky hips, Davey T (x2) with his deceptive ‘front row’ pace, Chris with some great work at 9 and Pug with what was basically a flop over in front of his Mrs and her old man.

Huge effort across the park; Kirk with some trademark massive hits gets the forwards BOP and, although there were some big individual performances in the back line, Chris gets the nod with his game management at 9.

Captain's Notes:
- Hope Paddy’s finger is okay after I blagged knowing how to relocate a dislocated pinky.
- With a conversion being lined up by Cotham (but the scoreline already well in our favour), the ref took the decision to run in and boot it himself. The ball sailed a few metres wide, but he put his arm up and awarded it as a successful kick regardless, much to everyone's glee.
- an unorthodox knee in the changing room was a great success and no one can persuade me otherwise.
OBs 3s 54-19 Cotham Park 2s