Ah, Frampton Cotterell! A short two-hour scenic drive from Long Ashton, but well worth it.

After the warmup game last week with our 2s where OBs came away very much second on the scoresheet, despite playing good rugby, we were looking forward to giving it another go, albeit it with a squad a decade or two older on average.

Things started well as, because of events far outside his control (map reading and timekeeping), our skipper with two of our front row arrived 15 minutes before kickoff. Even for vets this is slightly tardy. Ironically, he'd moved kickoff to earlier to a) benefit a player who didn't play and b) watch Bristol.

Colton then showed how concerned he was about the lack of warmup time by going straight to the loo and staying in there for twelve of those fifteen minutes. Which was the actual reason we kicked off late, as explained to the oppo "Can we wait 5? My prop's having a poo. I promise you it's best he does." This was met with general assent.

AJ - Frampton vet's main man explained he'd also had a tough morning as he'd totally forgotten to book a ref. But problem solved as he'd found a whistle. At this point I did wonder if Giddings would repeat his new habit of being carded within 5 minutes at Frampton (i.e. on his fifth or so petulant outburst).

This explained why we decided kickoff through the pleasingly Spartan method of a captain's arm wrestle. Having dispatched Frampton's skipper, I then got slightly carried away by confidently choosing to kick, and choosing which end we'd do the kicking from.
Hamblett (of all people) informed me this was unusual.

Anyway. Rugby was played. The first period was mainly frenetic rugby punctuated by terrible knock-ons.
Case in point, new boy James had a great game apart from flagrant hat-trick avoidance as he dropped two (perhaps three?) with the line begging. He wasn't alone - most of the backs dropped the ball at some point, and the forwards with great team spirit also did some joining in too. We then tightened things up, got a bit more structure and started to enjoy a crowd-pleasing spectacle of repeated hammer and nails calls. Being OBs, it felt a bit weird. But good weird. No-hands custard on the nose type of good weird.

Anyway. Notable moments, not quite in order:
Frampton having

their bluetooth speaker outside at warmup, blasting out soft rock. Set the tone perfectly.
Not long after, Ben clotheslining their winger to kick off a mass breakout of general apologising and niceness. Lovely bunch.
Jack's first ever 50-22. He was pleased.
Lineout throw straight to Chop which rather defied the 'keep it tight' (KIT*) directive but, improbably, came off.
More in spirit with KIT was opting for a driving maul from a lineout at halfway - taking us pleasingly near their line. And again to general congratulations from the oppo.
Dave "I'm not sure I can play after the Cricket Club Dinner" playing a full 80 with a big grin. Helped by Loz smashing everything that moved.
Two zebo-esque catches off the boot - from Chop and Sam (I think).
Oppo kindly reversing their shirts at halftime, possibly to avoid them passing to James again (who honestly wasn't calling for it).
Chris turning up just in time for the final whistle. If only we'd kicked off at 2:30...
Excellent showers. Almost too nice, as it did lead to fairly slow shower turnaround.
Topless MOTM drinks race in the bar (narrow win for FC), with the excellent tradition of throwing the competitors' tops over the roof beams.

Our MOTM was Big Dr. Tom who seemed to do about 50% of our forward carries.
But also an excellent debut for James who was a worthy choice to represent him in the drinking. Although he lost.

Great game, good lads. Looking forward to the re-match.

*also know as stop f*ing chucking the ball away but SFCTBA felt a bit negative for such a delightful day.

Old Bristolians RFC

Frampton Cotterell

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