This week saw the first example of why the partnership between Oxford RFC and Oxford Harlequins was put into place, with Duncan Lynchsmith, our fly half, making the step up a number of leagues to play for Quins. This was not unexpected, with Duncan having scored most of our points this season, and looking a cut above when he played with us, it was surely a matter of time. Of course this does not excuse him of being a Judas, a traitor, a disgrace to the Oxford name etc etc!

Its funny when this happens, because obviously as a team we don’t want to see our better players leaving, but with all the banter and abuse we gave Duncan, at the bottom of it was the sincerest best wishes for a very talented player, and I think you will see a lot of him in a Quins shirt……..the git!

Anyway, back to our crucial game with Gosford All Blacks, we needed to win to stay fourth in the league and keep the gap between ourselves and Bicester to just 6 points, but we knew Gosford would be no pushovers. We started the game with a reshuffled back line following Duncan’s departure ( traitor……….Juda’s……….etc etc), but showed no ill effects from this as straight away our forwards gave us an excellent platform with which to attack from. With Tom Olly running the game at 10, and with Tom Johnson having a top game at inside centre(ably supported by a marauding pack) we were making yards, and the breakthrough came when an offload from Johnson came my way, and I remembered what the area behind the posts was for and scored my first try since October! I could spend the next hour describing the try to you, but I have decided against this, as it would be blatant showing off, so instead, I will be releasing a series of podcasts that describe the try, and my all round contribution to the game, entitled “Why I am so Good at rugby”. It will be a 38 part series, accompanied by a ring binder with pull outs, and the first part released today is available from my website www.itsnotofteniscoresoimakethemostit.com.

Next Tim Phillips crashed over from 10 yards out (reverse no look pass anyone?), and when Tom Olly took a lovely line to cruise in under the posts, we were 21-0 up at half time. Then came the dreaded melancholy, because we had been playing such good rugby, we took our feet of the gas, and allowed Gosford to come back at us, which resulted in a breakaway try from their lively scrum half. But with ten minutes to go, we built up more pressure with some excellent fringe running and ball retention, and a nice backs move sent our winger Tom over in the corner.

26-7 was the final score, and although we made hard work of it in the second half, the game was never in doubt, and our team is showing the kind of ability now that we promised at the start of the season. With a few big games coming our way, notably Wallingford away, and Slough at home, it’s going to be quite nice to have a rest weekend coming, but I am hoping that we still get some hard training in before hand.

On a quick aside, well done to Duncan for scoring a try on his debut for Quins, but with our backline firing, there was lots of Duncan...........Duncan Who? flying around on Saturday night!