The Colts travelled to Wooton Basset for their National Cup tie today, fielding an exciting side packed with pace. Through injury, illness and diary clashes, we were perhaps a little less heavy-duty than we would have liked and the opposition were large.

Time would tell if pace would trump power. As it happened, an early injury to RWB’s hooker left them short of front row options and, for the second week running, scrums were uncontested. This was in contravention of the competition rules and allowed an additional back rower to be added to their already mobile and powerful pack.

After conceding the first try, we started to find our shape with Freddy at scrum half pulling the strings.

He’d already been upended jumping for the kick off by an illegal and dangerous challenge. Both victim and perpetrator were lucky to survive without injury or yellow card. Despite this, we were turning over the opposition and our back line was buzzing.

Three tries and a penalty meant we led 22-12 at half time. Changes in personal were planned but before they could happen, Ollie had launched a hanging kick off which was acrobatically claimed by Archie who outpaced the cover to score in the corner.

RWB gathered themselves, however and had their best period of the match scoring two quick tries by direct running and offloading. We were only six points up at this stage and momentum was with them. However, we are made of stern stuff and, as the opposition began to tire, our fitness and physicality gave us more ball.

Conor, once again a powerhouse in the front row, ripped the ball in a tackle and with four defenders hanging off him forced himself over the line. Rapid hands and feet from the back line added two more blistering scores, Jonny F being heavily involved and we ran out victorious.

How far we can go in this competition is unknown but it was a very promising start.

Tom Perris