Gosford 2s fail to start the season with a win

On a day seeing debutants and players returning from injuries, a strong looking line up for Gosford was match by a Bicester third team strengthened by a handful of second team personnel in key positions.

Gosford settled into the game the quicker and set about keeping territorial pressure on Bicester. The scrum was in the ascendancy, the defence was superb (and continued to be the whole game) and the backs were making ground every time they had the ball.

It was after a period of sustained pressure that good hands enabled full back Rob Eynon to put Matt Strong over in the corner. The difficult conversion was missed but Gosford took a deserved early lead.

This sparked a response from Bicester, but it was swiftly repelled. A period of dominance from Bicester saw them camp in Gosford's 22 a number of times but the men black stood up to their adversaries. Unfortunately towards the end of the half, one slipped tackle gave one of their larger lads a head of steam, and despite the attention of a few players he bundled over the line. Another missed conversion tied the game and brought the half to a close at 5-5.

The second half saw Gosford start the stronger again, but is was 10 minutes that a triple substitution drew immediate rewards - a stolen lineout on the half way and Jake Townsend was running at a disorganised defence, his half break was improved upon by Gilkes who carried to the 22 before passing to his new centre partner Pete Copp who got on the scoresheet with his first touch of the season. Unfortunately the conversion drifted just wide, but GAB were back in the lead 10-5.

Bicester came back at Gosford strongly and were repelled time and again, but unfortunately broke through the midfield after being camped on GAB's 22 for some time to score by the posts leaving an easy conversion and the lead for the first time in the game.

Play was restarted with with the final play left - GAB managed to reclaim the ball at the restart and started to make their way upfield for a winning score, but a forward pass so close to being flat (and often missed by the officials) was spotted and the efforts of GAB ended in heroic defeat rather than victory. The players to a man tackled and rucked and mauled like men possessed, but it was not enough on that pleasant September afternoon.

Men of the match went to Jake Townsend and Sam Durley.