Last Wednesday saw the 1st XV travel to Gloucestershire to take on South A champions Hartpury College 2nd XV in the quarter-finals of the BUCs Vase.

The game did not start in great fashion for UoB as they shipped 2 very defendable tries in the opening 15 minutes to allow Hartpury to get out to an early 12-0 lead. UoB managed to work their way back into the game though asserting their will on Hartpury and they were eventually rewarded with a try off a dominant driving maul through second-row Pete Vickers, with the conversion from centre Jake Attwell. Once again though the powerful Hartpury got themselves on the scoresheet with a nice break down the left hand side. The game though continued in a competitive fashion and UoB were unlucky to not be playing against 14 men following some poor discipline from Hartpury, but the referee decided not to reach into his pocket. UoB then had the last say of the first half as their attacking driving maul was once again dominant and scrum-half Will Hardwick took advantage to touch down. This left the game finely poised at Half-time with Hartpury leading by 17 points to 12.

Two early mistakes though in the second half though gifted Hartpury field position which they took advantage of to stretch their lead. From there it only got worse for UoB as they disintegrated at the set piece and Hartpury killed the game with a further 3 tries to take the score to 39-12. UoB did show the courage to have the last score in the game and end their season on a positive note when back-rower Aiden Ali powered over. The final score was 39-19 and thus UoB were knocked out of the cup and their season concluded. Nonetheless, this was a highly successful season with a record 10 wins in the season and a first win in the cup for many years. Progress will be the aim heading into the 2020/2021 season.