Our first game of the season was an away fixture against Chipping Norton a team who we drew with last year much to the boys' disappointment. Our expectation was it will be a closely fought and highly competitive match.

Confidence levels, however, were high as unlike last year we only had Olly Speake on the injury list and we had trained throughout the summer months working on ball skills and fitness.

What eventuated was a game that is not reflected by the scoreboard. Chippy competed and never gave up. They put us under extreme pressure, turning our ball over, running hard at us and attacking us at every turn. The big difference was our ability to finish off moves, our fitness and skill set enabled us to keep the ball alive and complete more phases of play.

Our back line is formidable and takes some stopping but it was the forwards and backs linking to complete moves that made the difference. George Loft and Henry Templar on hand to put players over for tries, Rhodri Walsh on hand to complete a back move, all 3 requiring a huge effort to get there in support. Our forwards and backs were lining up to complete phases wave after wave.

Huge ball carries by Sam Evans, Joe Chapman, Olly Sparkes, Aaron Javadji, Marcus Smith, Josh Reed, Archie Benson, deft touches by Josh Smith, Samuel Thorby, Jude Hamilton, Tom Forrest, relentless tackling and linking by Jake Graham, Harry James and plenty of upfront grunt from Charlie McIntosh, Olly Dale, Harry Beadon, Charlie Marson Smith and Sam Allen. 21 players, 21 fully committed contributors and a great start to the season.