Match Report County Cup QF v Abingdon - 14 Dec

Oxon County Cup QF

Abingdon 0 v Bicester 41

The boys finally began their Cup defence achieving a controlled win with well executed rugby.

Abingdon kicked off, Conor White received and ran back to halfway to set the first of 4 phases through the forwards up to the 22, Mats Venning and Chris Nourse moved the ball out quickly to Henry Gayler who went over in the corner to complete a well worked score. Abingdon secured possession and looked to move the ball out from 10 to 12 but Dan Rowland had read the move and intercepted to finish under the posts, Dougie Haynes added the extras. Dan set off on a break down the right wing and was well tackled by Abingdon. Bicester calmly built pressure from which Cameron Fortin-Smith made the decisive line break towards the posts, Cammy passed to Charlie Bethell who gave a miss pass out to Robson Connor who went over for his first try of the season.

Bicester lost their way for the next five minutes, gave away a couple of penalties for offside which enabled Abingdon to spend some time in their opponents half. When Abingdon were found offside on their 10m line, Henry took a quick penalty and stepped a couple of defenders to score under the posts and put the team back on track. Dan quickly followed this with his second in the corner. From the restart, Mats Venning caught and set off on a good run up the left to the 22 where he passed inside to Henry in support who raced in under the posts for his hatrick. This was the sixth try and observing the competition rules the referee asked the Abingdon captain if he would like the game to be stopped, to his credit he opted to play on until half time. The final score of the match came from a break down the right wing by Ed Mawdsley, when Ed was stopped Conor took it on and found Dougie in support, Dougie unselfishly passed when only a metre from the line for Ollie Cassidy to score.

Bicester now face an away trip to Chinnor in the Semi-Finals.

Try scorers: Henry Gayler (3), Dan Rowland (2), Robson Connor and Oliver Cassidy

Conversions: Dougie Haynes (3)


Friendly - Abingdon 0 v Bicester 42

To their continued credit, Abingdon were up for playing the second half as a friendly, enabling Bicester to play their unused replacements. The decision proved to be a good one as Abingdon clearly improved defensively in the second game.

Bicester looked certain to score when Harry Court broke on the wing and crossed the line, bizarrely Harry chose to go for an American Football touch down rather than a try (certain acronyms were attempted on the touchline, the writer has chosen not to print but will gladly reveal if asked). The first try came when Henry and Tom Burrell combined well with a nice offload and inside pass, Tom’s line break was decisive and he charged in to score, Ben Jenks converted his first of 5. The second try came from an inside pass from Dan to Antony Iveson, there was simply no stopping Antony showing a powerful burst of pace to the line with some reluctant tackle attempts being brushed aside. Paul Nourse described his run as giving 300%. From an Abingdon scrum, Mats caught their scrum half and created turnover ball from which Tom again broke through to score his second.

Despite Abingdons increased efforts in the forwards, the Bicester runners were just too strong, exemplified by Antony who received the ball at No8 on the halfway line from a Bicester scrum, rode a tackle, paused for thought and then sprinted down the line to score in the corner. Abingdon tried to get points on the board by attempting a penalty kick from the half way line, a valiant attempt was on target but fell just short of the bar. Henry and Dan each scored again with Dan converting his own try. Thanks to loosehead Ollie Cass for entertaining us with an admirable performance playing at fullback.

Try Scorers: Tom Burrell (2), Antony Iveson (2), Henry Gayler and Dan Rowland

Conversions: Ben Jenks (5) and Dan Rowland