Score: Bank of England 7- BBBRFC 10

On a glorious October day at the BoE, the scene was set for some champagne rubgy from the Baa baas, and with Lions centre Will Greenwood watching from the touchline here was the chance to impress with
our traditional flamboyant magic. This did not exactly materialise in the 1H, as the pack were put on the back foot at set pieces and when the backs had the ball in space, poor handling let them down with the try line at their mercy.
However, the Blacks got together at half time and the call was keep it simple, particularly with a number of new combinations in the line up. Suddenly, the blacks found their fluency; Flather providing the cutting edge in the back row and Rick Little showing himself to be the ultimate modern priop with some marauding & scathing runs. Smith & Murray put in the big hits in midfield, whilst Blacker started to orchestrate the pattern of the game with an intelligent mix of kicking deep and mixing it up with the backs.
Indeed, a scathing move involving Blacker and the Baa baas midfield led to an excellent try as the Baa Baas took a deserved lead early in the 2H. However, as is our achilles heel, the luxury of a lead meant we lost our concentration and missed tackles led to us trailing 5-7 with 15 mins to go.
Showing good character, the skipper Abrahams lifted the side for a big effort, and the following passages of play saw the Baa Baas show their supperior quality, only for some sloppy mistakes prevent us from taking the lead. In the end, we relied on a mistake from the opposition as the Bank of England full back made the mistake of trying to run out of his 22 under pressure from Murray and threw the ball away to Ross, who scored with ease.
Despite coming under pressure in the closing stages, the Baa Baas held on to win a solid, if unconving, victory. The main conclusions from the game were that it is going to take a time for the team with so many new players this year to gel and it is unlikely we will see the same fluency at these early stages. But the spirit is undeniably there and there is no doubt this year's squad has the talent to put in performances up another level from last year's highly successful outfit.

Alex Ross