Our penultimate game of the season was away to Old Alleynians, who sat two places above us in the league. With a full strength team, supplemented by three very capable U13's, we were confident of our ability to compete, however a good start was crucial, having conceded tries in the opening minute of each of our last two league games due to poor tackling. So we warmed them up by practicing both handling and tackling and this seemed to have worked as we competed well in the first 5-6 minutes, albeit stuck in our own half.

We managed to hold them up over the line after they ran a penalty but then succumbed to a period of pressure to go 0-7 down after a converted try. Frustratingly we then lost our shape, with OA's scoring another try straight from the re-start due to several missed tackles. And we then conceded a third to suddenly find ourselves 0-17 down and having had very little possession.

I don't know what Graham said to the boys behind the posts after that 3rd try as whilst their heads could have gone down we instead roared back into life. From our kick off we caught them in their own half, won some good ruck ball, moved it left and with good handling by George and Jamie the ball went to Ryan who powered over for a try 5-17. We then scored another soon after the re-start when they spilled the ball in our half whilst attacking and the ball went wide again to Ryan. We were convinced he was in for a score but their own speedster amazingly ran him down and caught him just before the line - George had supported really well though and was on hand to pick up and go over to score 10-17. And then just before half time we had a scrum in our 22 after their line out throw was not straight and after a strong break by Lucas Bibb, Conor Turbett scorched over in the corner - a try started and ended by two U13 players was a great effort and we were right back in it at 15-17.

After half time Jamie Hughes went off with a knee injury so we moved George into the back row from centre and Conor Turbett into the centre. Annoyingly we then conceded a soft try when they ran the ball out of defence near their own try line and their speedster ran the whole length of the pitch to score. The try was converted to leave us 15-24 down. But our heads did not go down and we soon put a lot of pressure on in their 22. Their backs were repeatedly offside but not penalised, leaving no room for our backs to operate, so the forwards took it on more and Lucas was very unlucky to have a disallowed try after a 5m scrum. But he made amends soon after when he crashed over in typically direct style after David S took a scrum against the head - we were back to 22-24.

Could we finally get our noses in front? Sadly not, as we lost a scrum on our 22 having dominated all scrums to date, just after Adam Dunn had been taken off for a rest (bad decision by the coach!). They scored we were 22-29 down.

In the dying minutes we got the ball wide to Ryan again who made a good break, supported by Conor, who was tackled just short. Andrew Dearden was then held up after a good scrum (Adam now back on the pitch!) and drive by Lucas. And then finally, in the last play of the game, George wriggled his way over. And Daniel Willicombe, who had been practicing his kicking the week before, nervelessly slotted the conversion to secure us a thrilling 29-29 drawn. That practice was definitely worth it!

This was a great team effort and had we not given them a 17 point head start we would have won. But a draw was still welcome after a season with few wins and there were definitely lots of signs of improvement with the team playing some of their best rugby of the season and new players starting to really make a mark. Man of the match: our U13 contignent of Lucas Bibb, Conor Turbett and James Benjamin for a collective very big impact. Well done all of you.