Wiltshire Wyverns 50 - Oxford Cavaliers 24

Injury ravaged Oxford cavaliers patchy performance gives wiltshire whyverns their first conference win Oxford cavaliers travelled to wiltshire missing a considerable amount of first team players due to the army navy game at twickernam, but this was no excuse for a patchy and inconsistant performance but the fact they ended the match with 5 injuries didn't help matters Cavaliers took the lead early one due to a break through the middle of the defence by loose forward John Connaughton who troubled the wiltshire defence until he came off just before half time due to a suspected broken thumb which was later confirmed. Wiltshire were slow out the blocks as oxford cavaliers scored again until wiltshire managed to run in two quick trys due to poor handling and errors from oxford leading upto the first quarter.The errors became a popular theme as oxford tried forcing the issue against the new conference side who capatalised by running in several unanswered trys. A solid game by young winger tim probets and strong running and defensive work from debutant ben bushby, rory lynch and returning cav Matt Beckley were the only highlight for oxford in the first half who also lost hooker peter smith to an ankle injury. After the break head coach Ian Allison shuffled his team moving Stewart Hannah into the five eighth position and brett ryan into hooker to try to get the team to use their ball carriers,things considerably improved in the 3rd quarter with hannah and ryan using their ball carriers Andy Spencer,bushby,beckley and briggs to make the hard yards up the field. Ryan managed to sneak round the ruck to score and a brace of trys from the man of the match of the oxford side,fullback Andy Rourke helped matters for a time.

Though further injuries led to oxford playing on with only 12 which opened the floodgates late on for wiltshire with a final score of 50-24 for the corsham
based outfit.