Bicester 14 Pts v Phoenix 22 Pts

At last the complete unit – the complete game. Fantastic to watch rugby as it is supposed to be played, forwards doing the hard work and giving opportunities to the backs, who spread the ball out wide and scored. Really impressed with the way we played.

Mr and Mrs Watkinson being the only supporters to travel this week were in for an absolute treat.

The first 10 minutes of the game was very typical of Phoenix, we always seem to take time to settle into the game and land up defending in our half. Bicester had a strong pack and were pushing us off the ball at scrum time which is quite rare. The solution was found as Alex Jones had mouldies on!!! So Neil Wincomb replaced him while we sorted out the boot issues. This did stabilise the scrum and we left Alex off for the next 20 minutes contemplating his feet.

At 15 minutes Phoenix started applying the pressure and for a good 25 minutes we were camped in their half with some fantastic ball travelling to Luke Collins on the wing and some last ditch attempts to tackle him preventing a few tries. Bicester were managing to clear their lines and with Alex off we were not getting the usual service at 5 in the line out. We brought Alex back on for Luke Maundrill and within 5 minutes after a few phases, Tom Pell scored in the corner. 35 minutes 5-0 to Phoenix.

From the restart, Phoenix gathered and attacked again applying more pressure with the ball going wide at every opportunity. Multiple infringements at the ruck (9 penalties) eventually saw the referee yellow card the Bicester 9 and at 40 minutes a fantastic run exploiting the space saw Dave McMillan at outside centre break through for Phoenix's second try, converted by Kieran Roche? Phoenix now lead 12-0 at half time.

Bicester kicked off for the second half and you could see the intent. They did not want to lose at home in front of all their VP’s. Luckily we secured the kick off rucked a few times and cleared the lines all within about 1 minute. A scrum resulted on the half way line with Bicester put in. A wild pass from their reserve 9 saw an intercept from Tom Pell for his second try of the game. 41 minutes 17 -0

Bicester came back at us again and the Phoenix scrum of Tom Porter, Iain Watkinson, James Richardson, Neil Wincomb, Alex Jones, Jamie Willis, Dave Harris and captain Tony Porter put a huge effort in defending 6 consecutive scrums within 10 meters of the try line to keep Bicester scoreless. Eventually Brad Coomber managed to clear the ball and in a gallant run Tom Pell got injured near the half way line. Dave Harris replaced him at scrum half and Luke Maundrill came back on.

A box kick from Dave cleared our lines and from a resulting scrum mid-way the ball went from Dave Harris to Kieran Roche to Glen Osborne to Dave McMillan, fantastic passing landing in Chris Varey’s hands on the wing. Chris made no mistakes and ran the remainder of the meters to score. Bonus point try for Phoenix at 53 minutes. 22-0

John Kilby came on for Chris after this try and played a solid game on the wing for the remainder of the game.

Bicester fought back in the last 20 and in the last 10 with a yellow card to Dave (although was probably a team yellow) they managed to eventually score 2 tries.

So after a sterling captaincy effort by Tony Porter and the commitment of the whole team Phoenix won our first away game this season with a 4 try bonus point. Final score 22-14 to Phoenix.

Dave McMillan was man of the match, hard work in both attack and defence.

Team: J Richardson, I Watkinson, Tom Porter, L Maundrill, A Jones, J Willis, D Harris, Tony Porter (Captain); T Pell, K Roche, L Collins, D McMillian, C Varey, J Kilby, B Coomber

Subs: N Wincomb, G Osborne, T Schofield