University of Gloucestershire 2XV v Royal Agricultural University XV

It was a feisty affair at The Folly on Wednesday afternoon, in which the 2nds scored their first points and try of the season in a match packed with action including 6 yellow cards between the sides. A hard-fought battle, with the visitors winning 31 points to 11.

RAU were quick off the mark and tested UGRFC’s defence with two early converted tries with their winger finding space out wide for the second.

UGRFC got their first points of the season through the boot of captain Joel Young following a penalty.

The boys in blue took the opportunity to take more points after RAU were penalised for not rolling away at the breakdown. The successful kick by the captain took the home team to 6 points.

 

UGRFC struggled at times in defence and RAU took advantage of that, when three missed tackles helped them to find the space for their third try of the match. The successful conversion extended their lead by 7 points.

UGRFC got the final say of the half, with their first try of the season through fantastic forward play from the lineout, before a driving maul by the pack over the line as James Buchanan got the ball over the whitewash. The conversion was narrowly missed which left the half-time score 11-21.

 

A yellow card for UGRFC opened the action for the second half and was the first of many as the two sides started to get lively.

With the one-man advantage, RAU found space in the defence to score another converted try, those were the only points to be scored during the sin-binning period.

However, a successful penalty kick extended their lead further soon after.

As the game continued it started to get scrappy with both UGRFU and RAU having 2 players each sent to the bin, so for the next ten minutes it was a 13-man match.

There were no more points to be scored in the second half though, there was one more yellow card for RAU, but UGRFC found it hard to take advantage of their one-man advantage and so the final score was left 11-31. A hard loss, however the 2^ndteams first points of the season!