Pipped at the post(s)

On a cold bright day at Silver Leys we welcomed Saracens A for a friendly. After a tremendous effort in clearing the pitch of the previous nights fireworks the A team assembled for what was likely to be a tough examination of our progress so far this season. Saracens, who sit mid table in Division One (a league above us) were always going to be a challenge to overcome but a (rare!) fast start from us saw a 7-0 lead appear within the first 5 minutes.

The pattern of the game was established from this point with both side paying a fast brand of rugby with tries coming from break away moves. The scores were soon leveled but once again we struck back.

After some excellent advice from John Cullen (U18's) who focused the lads on trying to be more assertive as the breakdown we managed to retain more ball in the second half and the sides were very well balanced. The scores see sawed away until right at the death when Sarries took their final chance to just outscore us by one converted try.

All in all we can be very pleased that we competed with once of the strongest sides in our age group and whilst we have a few things to work on it was a great confidence booster as there was little to choose from between the sides and it could have gone either way.

Final score 26-19