Report by Pat Sheehan
An autumnal afternoon saw the OP’s line up at Ostlers Field to face Aylesbury with both sides looking for a win after recent defeats.
The Twisters started strongly, soaking up early Aylesbury pressure with well worked tries from James Paxman and Will Taylor, both down the left wing and taking a 10-0 lead. Aylesbury took the fight back to the Twisters with two well worked tries themselves, the first coming from a goal line drop out by the OP’s and the second from a well worked move in midfield to leave the score at 10-10 after 25 mins.
Playing with confidence, Aylesbury went over again from a cross-field kick to take the lead for the first time in the game at 15-10 after 30 minutes. With a yellow card for Luis Gomez just before half time for Priorians, the first half concluded at 15-10. Playing a man down, the Twisters withstood Aylesbury’s advances ; a string of penalties for Aylesbury prolonged their numerical advantage, but OPs held firm in defence.
Back up to full complement, Priorians were on the front foot again with a dominant line out and maul, forcing Aylesbury to repeatedly infringe with the end result being a penalty try and the lead at 17-15.
Anyone who has followed Aylesbury’s results this season and particularly last season will have noticed a pattern of close defeats which perhaps disguises the quality that Aylesbury possess which they displayed in a purple patch which saw three tries and a conversion scored in a 15-minute period to make the score 34-17.
Having had the lead twice in the game the Twisters now faced an uphill battle. Realising there was still points to play for, this OPs side dug deep and fought back with slick hands in the line resulting in Jake Kane going over and Taylor converting to make the score 34-24 and in turn securing the try-bonus point.
Aylesbury were not to be outdone and utilising the bounce on their 3G pitch played the ball through and scored making it 39-24 with 5 mins to play. At this point you could have said the match was over, but no, the Twisters - with a never-say-die attitude - carried the ball down the field and a powerful break from Mishka Fibbens saw him cross the line, Taylor adding the extras to take the score to 39-31.
With the losing bonus point now within grasp you could sense the apprehension from the Aylesbury supporters and so it was to be as from the restart the ball came to Tomek Tsang and from midfield Tsang scorched through the Aylesbury defence to take the score to 39-36 and in the process secure the losing bonus point.
You could now really sense the trepidation in the crowd as Aylesbury restarted, but unfortunately that was to be the last play with the full time score staying at 39-36. If the match had continued for another 5 mins the OP’s would have more than likely pulled off a stunning victory, but the points cushion amassed by Aylesbury saw them home.
This was a great game of rugby and a fantastic testament to Regional 2 / Level 6 rugby which in this league has gone up a couples of notches in terms of quality and tenacity this season. The Twisters can be disappointed not to come away with the result but with 10 tries scored in the previous two games, it bears testament to the work being put in on the training ground, this would indicate that better things are to come from this Old Priorian team.
OPRFC SCORERS
T: Paxman, Taylor, Kane, Fibbons, Tsang, Penalty Try
Con: Taylor (2)