The Thornbury clubhouse proudly displays the England shirts of Billy and Mako Vunipola, both of whom lived in the town and played at the club on their move from South Wales when they were still in school. And how Blues could have done with one or both of the brothers in the second half. Going into half time losing by only one point, the second half saw Blues concede 43 points. In an area of the country which boasts a huge number of teams at community level and only the three Premiership teams, this will not be the last time Blues travel west this season and the hope for future trips is that the weather will be less windy, every club we go to has a television screen as big as Thornbury's and the outcome of the matches will be a lot different. There was a buoyancy going into the game with Blues having won their previous two games and being named Tribute Ale Berkshire Team of the Month for September for their, "strong start in their new league." Well deserved given the results in the first month of the season.

It all started brightly for Blues. Playing with the wind and opening up a well deserved thirteen point lead within the first half an hour of the match, the final quarter of the half was significant. Thornbury scored fourteen points to take a one point lead into half time and from there it was almost one way traffic. Blues first try came after a great attacking kick by player of the match Dan Thorne. Just as an aside Dan was chosen by the opposition as Blues player of the match. Unfortunately he was still in the changing room when the traditional boat race took place. With complete and utter selflessness, GRS stood in for Dan and won the race! Anyway, from the resulting lineout, Dave Barber made a strong break up the middle and as he was tackled he offloaded to Ashley Doel who ran in to score the try. The successful conversion by Dan made the score 7-0 to Blues. It was interesting in the first fifteen or so minutes Thornbury gave away a number of offside penalties which stopped them gaining any momentum and testimony to the pressure Blues were putting on the home team. It was good to see Kris Ford back in action. He had a great impact with his ball carrying, distribution and physical presence in defence and one of his punches through gained a lot of ground but just as Blues were about to cut loose there was a knock on and Thornbury cleared their lines. Soon after, Ben Hurford John chased his own clearing kick and forced a penalty by following up at speed and pressurising the Thornbury full back. Nothing came from this position but another kick through, this time by Kris Ford and some great work by Jacob Checksfield on the floor led to another Blues penalty which Dan Thorne converted to take the score to 10-0. Almost immediately Thornbury conceded another kickable penalty which Dan kicked and on the half hour Blues were 13 points ahead. And there the good news stopped. It's not often a penalty try is awarded and speaking to Thornbury supporters after the match they saw the decision as absolutely correct. Blues supporters weren't quite as sure. As Blues were running back into position just on their 22 the home team scrum half fired out the ball and it hit one of the Blues defenders. The referee judged that with their overlap and 22 metres out from Blues line Thornbury would have probably scored. No endless replays and agonising, the referee, rightly or wrongly, made the call and that was that, 7-13. This galvanised Thornbury and for the first time in the game they began to exert some real pressure in Blues twenty two, knocking on as they were about to score. Unfortunately Blues couldn't clear their lines and a defensive knock on led to an attacking scrum for Thornbury. Their number eight picked up and powered over, the successful conversion taking the score to 14-13 to the home team in the last play of the half.

The second half started and within three minutes Thornbury had scored another try after some slick handling. Blues supporters were still upbeat at this point and another strong surge forward gave Blues some good field position. However a penalty given away enabled Thornbury to clear their lines and just five minutes later a dropped ball in midfield, a hack through and Thornbury had their bonus point try to take the score to 28-13. Blues lineout was functioning well in spite of the difficult conditions and the scrum was holding its own so there remained hope. With Harry Johnson, back from deployment to add depth to our scrum half position, firing out some effective passes from the base of the scrum Blues created a number of chances in the second half but could not quite convert them into points. A shout out here to Sam Croton, from Colts to making his senior debut. Well done Sam for a good performance with the added pressure of playing out of position. Shout out also to James McAvoy who came on as a replacement and showed his skills by making one very impressive run to set up an attacking position for Blues. As the half unfolded Thornbury scored another four tries, with some impressive handling. It could have been worse though and going into the last ten minutes of the game Blues scrambled on more than one occasion to stop yet more Thornbury scores. Finally Blues managed to secure an attacking position, won a couple of penalties, opted for lineouts and from the last of these, Sam Bramhall forced his way over to score under the posts. Soon after, the full time whistle sounded with the score at 56-18 to Thornbury.

Huge thanks to the travelling Blues supporters. Admittedly the journey isn't quite as far as that portrayed by Jack Kerouac, whose epic trip from coast to coast in America in the 1950's, immortalised in his book On The Road, caused quite a stir in that country. But for us Brits, or at least for me anyway, a two hour journey is a long way and the team as always is very grateful to those who turn up at away matches proudly wearing their Blues shirts. Thanks to Thornbury who gave us a warm welcome but most importantly thanks to the players who despite the result gave it their all for Blues. Next Saturday Blues entertain top of the table Trowbridge and Stags entertain Witney II. Keep a look out for kick off times and if Stags kick off early have a think about coming up and giving them a shout before Blues start their game.

See you next week.