After getting bullied in the away fixture, the 1st XV squad was hungry to right some wrongs. We started by receiving the kick and collected it well, running through simple, organised phases, which paid dividends with an early try. Rory calmly slotted his first kick from the edge of the pitch.

The game then took a very similar sequence of events – when Matson did have the ball they were held at the gain line, only making real ground with driving mall. A miracle turnover after a fantastic tackle by Pikey kept the visitors out. We carried on in this vein scoring an unanswered 29 points in the first half, including three from Hunty, one from Limmer and the extras from Rory, including a hastily improvised drop goal.

The weather started to turn in the second half and play became a bit looser, but some massive hits from Paff and Kyle again kept Matson behind their line. Comms and skills stayed strong, but the visitors took some points from a very well drilled line out. Both Hunty and Limmer added to their tallies, while Biggo steam trained through the opposition defence to get a taste of the glory. Rory again strong from the tee and hitting the target two more times.

Key stats from the game:
OBs 45 – 7 Matson
7 tries
2 pens conceded
0 turnovers conceded
18 players awarded BoG
2 bonus points

With Whitehall dropping out last minute, the 2nd XV arrived at Bishopton for a friendly. They’re top of their league and undefeated this season. Unfortunately, we were down to 14 after three rucks with Runkle twisting his knee. After some strong carries from the forwards in their 22, the ball came out to Magnus who threw an outrageous dummy to go in unopposed under the posts, Oli Jones with the conversion. After this OBs let Bishopton back into the game and they hit back with a try of their own before half time. As the whistle blew we unfortunately lost Bury to injury as well – Bishopton kindly lent us a player so we could remain at 14 players. Into the second half, OBs again entered the opposition’s 22 and with more strong carries Oli Higgs went over the line. The rest of the game was made up of trying to keep 14 players on the pitch, with injuries coming from everywhere and maintaining the lead. Final score 12 - 5 to OBs – we got the win but a lot left out on the field. Happy to end two undefeated seasons in two weeks. BOG Pete King.

Bishopston 2s 5 – 12 OBs 2s

The 3s put in a mammoth performance against a game Barton Hill side. Winning the toss, we chose to receive kick off and Barts chose to play into the wind and uphill for the first half. This seemed to be tactically astute as they got a quick penalty and took an early 0-3 lead. That didn’t last long though. With the wind in our sails (literally) and a new intensity, we scored directly from the next kick off and never looked like going back. Further first half tries from an even mixture of skill and good fortune put the result beyond doubt but we knew it could be a different story come the second half.

Their scrum became much more dominant with the hill and softening ground in the second half. As a result we found ourselves on the back foot and two tries against the good. This thankfully lit a fire under the bellies of most of our squad and led to two well worked tries to end the match 71-17.

Try scorers were; Froggett x 3, Gio x2, Ross x 2, Chris x2, Alec x1 and Munday x 1. BoP goes to Froggett for what the oppo called ‘deceptive pace for an old guy’ and DotD undoubtably goes to Captain Gorman for a second row kick chase (even though it did end in a try!) Special thanks to Sheps for playing the first half for us and the second half for Barts – with equal enthusiasm and encouragement in both halves!

OBs 3s – 71 – 17 Barts 3s