RUGBY PICTURES: Rugby St Andrews slideshow

PICTURES BY MIKE BAKER

Midlands 3 East (South)

Rugby St Andrews 10

Oundle 28

A sizeable crowd at John Tomalin Way was treated to a high quality game between two enterprising sides, which demonstrated why Oundle are clear favourites for promotion.

Territorially, Saints dominated, which was quite surprising considering the clear advantage in size and physique that the visitors enjoyed across the whole team, but their ability to capitalise on fewer opportunities and a healthy dollop of good fortune proved to be decisive.

The effort that the whole team put was immense but, met with an aggressive and streetwise defence, this was not quite enough and the final margin of defeat did scant justice to their endeavours.

Saints received the kick off and quickly carried the ball into Oundle’s 22. The pattern of the game was established in these first minutes. A wave of attacks was repelled. Oundle gained possession and attacked the short side. First up tackles were missed and the visitor’s interpassing took them 75 metres to the line.

Saints went straight back on the offensive and should have levelled but the scoring pass was misdirected.

Oundle were confident enough in the abilities of their powerful backs to try and run out of defence but were clearly discomforted by the line speed of their opponents.

The resultant errors kept Saints on the front foot. A penalty attempt failed narrowly before Oundle again attacked from deep.