Towcestrians RFC - 29 Bedford Athletic – 22

Towcestrians played their first competitive match of the season on Friday night under the lights at Greens Norton Road against Midlands 1 title hopefuls Bedford Athletic The match saw 2 large squads play three thirty minute sessions allowing the Tows coaches to have a good look at a lot of those who have gone through an arduous pre-season.

The Tows will be looking for third time lucky this season after missing out on promotion from South West 1 in the playoffs for the last 2 years.

Before the game Head coach Robbie George stated “just getting down to the 28 strong squad for this match was hard enough, and selection on Tuesday night to reduce that to just 18 who will travel to the first league match of the season away at Swanage will be very difficult indeed, but it’s a good problem to have”

The first session was toughly contested with Tows looking to move the ball through the hands and Bedford Ath showing strong defence and good line speed to cut down Tows behind the gain-line and apply pressure in defence, while Tows looked rusty in defence and slipped off a number of tackles. It was Ath who took the lead, the first try came after 21 minutes, a penalty conceded close to the Tows line was taken quickly and recycled, the Ath fly half putting in a perfectly weighted crossfield kick for a roaming 2nd row to gather and feed the looping full back to score in the corner.

Tows replied immediately, turning the ball over from the kick off with a couple of quick phases to get into the Ath 22 finished off by loosehead prop and new club captain Zac Osborne.

It was Bedford Ath who scored next, again Tows slipping off tackles to allow the opposition to break downfield with Tows eventually conceding a penalty which was kicked to the corner, a quick catch and drive saw Ath crash over 15 metres in to take the lead at the close of the first period 10 -5

Both teams rang the changes for the second period but it was Ath who started where they left off putting together some quick phases to spin the ball wide and score in the corner to extend the lead to 15-5 within 2 minutes of the restart

Tows bounced back with the next try, some good interplay within the forwards saw Veteran Chris Kirby bust upfield, quick recycling saw the ball in the hands of Fly Half Sam Neil on the Ath 22 who delicately chipped the defence, reminiscent of a young Gag Evans, for Thorn Gladwin to beat two defenders to dot down close to the sticks, converted to make the score 15 -12 to Bedford Ath, no further scores in the period but with Ath tiring and Tows getting stronger, the third and final period would be decisive.

Again Tows emptied the bench and put a very strong team out for the final period and that quickly showed, some fast hands and quick recycling from the kick off finished off with a basketball style pass to Tows debutant Wes Mcgimpsey to score for Tows to take the lead 17 – 15

Tows now starting to dominate, and 15 minutes in to the last period again following some quick recycling saw the ball spun wide to another debutant, Ben Young, who with time and space stepped back inside the cover defence to score, Tows now stretching the lead 24 – 15

Tows scored again soon afterwards with the visitors defence looking tired, a great break between 10 and 12 from Ben Roe on the Ath 22, who fed inside to Scott Browne and on to Second Row, Callum Jones to score under the posts, unbelievably the conversion was missed, but Tows now led 29 -15

It was Bedford Ath though who came back to have the last say as the game broke up in the final minutes, Ath breaking up the field with Tows dropping off first time tackles, recycled quickly and the Ath 10 with two hands on the ball threw a dummy and strolled through a huge gap to offload to the supporting centre for Ath to score under the posts, converted to leave the final score Tows 29 – Bedford Ath 22

After the game club captain Zac Osborne summed up the game….”we started off scrappy but as the game went on we gained some composure and improved on our phases and set pieces as we went on…it was good test and just what we needed before the first league game”.