X-Men run riot at Oxford

With a front row made up of 54 year old prop, a flanker and a 2nd row complimented by a back row including a winger, a centre and when our genuine 7 went off injured, a scrum half.
The forwards were complimented by a 9 at 15, a 14 at 10 and an 11 at 13!!
These players are versatile if nothing else and showed guts and commitment to turn up happy to play out of position. The game was nearly called off and it was only the intervention of Bob Foster (aka Robocop) who agreed to feature to make up the front row. We could be forgiven then to think that we were going to be under pressure up front and this indeed proved to be the case. Oxford had a very capable pack of big, talented and hard players but credit to the makeshift Combe pack, they never lost a ball on their own put-in depite regularly going backwards at a rate of knots. This was largely down to the clean striking by flanker-come hooker Peter Moon and the class of winger-come No.8 Chris Lewis tidying up at the back and despite such pressure, always managing either a pick and drive or feeding the 9 to release the back line.

The backs had a field day, Bradley (Happy Feet) Kayton bagged a superb hattrick as did Mike McDonough from his unfamilier fullback position, 2 exceptional tries from Alex Foster and one each from Phil Loyden and Ryan Fuller added to the 10 try haul, 8 of which were coverted by Loyden with McDonough converting one of his own breakaway try's.

In the pack, Mark Deaville sporting a new slick hairstyle was his usual self, dominant in the air, strong in the scrum and ever present at the breakdown really galvanised the pack, keeping them motivated and together as a unit, Maybank the lunatic hit everything that moved, came off with a back injury, got some treatement for 20 minutes, demanded to go back on, hit everything that moved and once again was forced to retired from the action with the same back injury. His replacement, Scrum Half George (I'll play anywhere coach) Bantin, held his own when called into action but having never played in the back row previously could be forgiven for not really knowing what to do, however, he enjoyed himself so much, we are going to try him at Hooker next week!
Chris (I need a poo, can we stop for food, why don't we just go to the pub and scrap the game) Lewis was an absolute legend today, a winger selected at 6 only to find out he would be playing 8 for the duration of this match. It was like he had played in this key position all of his career and was the link between the forwards and backs that allowed the pretty boys to run riot, a fantastic performance (playing the last 20 with a broken nose) that quite rightly earned him the Man of the Match accolade.

It was the backlne that did all of the damage on the day but this wouldn't have been possible without the heroic efforts of the pack who to a man were superb.

Alex Foster put in a performance, particularly in the 1st half that showed why he has featured regularly for the 1st XV this season and also why he will be in the mix for next weeks selection, he injured his shoulder but continued to show his class remaining on the pitch for the full 80 despite being in severe pain. 2 try's of the highest quality as well as positional and defensive prowess ensured Alex had a very good day at the office
Bradly Kayton improves with every game, a winger/full back that was forced into the 13 position due to the regular outside man being injured showed why this lad is now one of the first names on the team sheet. This lad has a step off both feet to die for, in fact his feet are so quick and unpredictable even he doesn't know which way they are going to take him and has to continually readjust his head just to stop him falling over, 3 excellent try's, all from deep, none of them easy and all of them taken by first skipping and dancing around several defenders who were left mesmerised by Brad's happy feet and wondering if he will be featuring in this years Simply Come dancing Xmas special.
Reis Buckland started nervously at 10, a position he hasn't taken for some 4 years but as the game progressed his confidence grew and rarely put a foot wrong for 65 minutes. His kicking out of hand was accurate, passing crisp and decision making generally very good, his performance now gives us real options for the remainder of the season.

All of the backs worked very well together filling holes when they appeared thus nullifying the Oxford attacks but it was the fabulous support play that featured in so many of the try's scored and gave us the huge points tally.

Combe had given their all, the last 20 saw us dropping like flies and ultimately down to 14 men, we had turned up with only one replacement who was forced into action early on, we then lost the tackling machine that is Neil Hodkinson to an ankle injury to reduce the numbers with Maybank already sideline with a back injury. Lewis had a broken nose, Foster had a knackered shoulder, Robocop's neck had gone and Taylor was dead on his feet but credit to Oxford, even at 61-5 behind they never gave up and had a flurry in the last 15 minutes to earn themselves a well deserved 4 try bonus point, the star of the Oxford side being their superb 15 with their 4 and 7 coming a close 2nd.

Table toppers Richmond Saxons at home next weekend which will inevitably provide a much sterner test for the x-men, but as long as we have all players to training on Tuesday and Thursday and the injured/resting players available, Richmond will most certainly have a game on their hands. If we are still trying to find players to plug holes on Friday afternoon as was the case this week and turn up on Saturday as ill prepared as this game, we will most certainly get our backsides handed to us. It's up to you gentlemen!

Squad
Foster B, Moon, Taylor, Deaville, Gilling, Hodkinson, Maybank, Lewis, McDonough, Buckland, Fuller, Loyden, Kayton, Foster, Askew, Bantin.

Scorers
Try's
Kayton 3
McDonough 3
Foster 2
Loyden 1
Fuller 1
Coversions
Loyden 8
McDonough 1