It's sometimes difficult to know how to start a report when so much happened both off and on the field on Saturday. If in doubt I always say start at the end. Well not quite the end but about ten minutes before the final whistle. Blues had stifled the Thornbury attack for virtually all of the second half, their third and final try being scored some forty minutes previously. And with Blues leading 34-21, Thornbury for the first time in the second period began to put some meaningful phases together. They had shown in the opening half hour of the game how capable they were of scoring quickly and from way out. But the defensive effort of every one of Blues players was magnificent, as it had been for the whole game and in the shadow of Blues posts on eighty minutes the ball was kicked into the North Bank to huge celebrations from supporters and players alike which was made all the more special given the heavy defeat at Thornbury earlier in the season. The win puts Blues at sixth place in the league, firmly in mid table. It doesn't get any easier of course and with our visit to league leaders Trowbridge next weekend let's hope for another monumental tussle.

The day had started with mixed emotions, the birthday celebration at lunch of Peter Branch, whose son Harry was winning his 100th cap, the knowledge that Dan Throne was to receive a specially commissioned blazer and cap for the quite staggering achievement of playing 300 games for Blues but the sad news of the passing of ex Club President Dick Tucker for which a minute's silence was observed just before kick off. Before chatting rugby a few more words about Peter Branch. He has supported Harry and the team for a long time and it was Pete who organised the caps for Dan and Harry and many thanks to him for this generous gesture.

Thornbury started the game as they had finished the earlier fixture and within ten minutes they had stormed into a 14-0 lead, showing their quality both as a pack of forwards and a quick and skilful back division. The second try was a length of the field effort and at this point thoughts were simply to stem the tide, gain some field position, put some pressure on the Thornbury defence and work our way back into the game. And do you know what, this is exactly what the boys did. Firstly a move started by Daniel Sanders and taken on by Jamie Futcher almost resulted in a try and minutes later a hack through and pick up by player of the match Ed Gavin, who was outstanding throughout, ended with a knock on just metres from the Thornbury try line. But momentum was beginning to change and this was reinforced with the early scrummages. The first put the visitors under pressure and the second resulted in a penalty five metres out. A few rumbles by the forwards later and the ball was whipped out to Michael Klichovicz who provided the scoring pass for Daniel Sanders. The successful conversion by Dan Thorne made the score 7-14. A few moments later a loose ball was hacked through by Thornbury which resulted in them gaining a five metre scrum and from this scrum their number 8 went over for the visitors' third try to take the score to 7-21. The concern now was that Thornbury could well have stopped or at least slowed the momentum Blues had gained, but this feeling was unfounded because Blues came back strongly with a series of powerful scrummages and even though Thornbury managed to clear their lines it was not long before Blues were back on the attack and a cross field kick by Dan Thorne resulted in Dan Sanders scoring his second try out wide. There remained time for a few more phases before half time and during this period both sides could have scored. Blues attacked from deep but lost the ball in the Thornbury twenty two, who then counterattacked and would have scored out wide if it had it not been for the covering tackle of Dave Few and Harry Waye Branch. Half time 21-12 to Thornbury but Blues well and truly in the game.

The start of the second half saw Thornbury continue with their attacking intent and then three kicks which were significant. The first by Kliki to relieve pressure, the second by Chris Harvey to relieve yet more pressure and then the third, an absolutely fantastic 50/22 by Dan Thorne. This set up a strong position for Blues. Thornbury almost stole the lineout but they knocked on and Blues were awarded an attacking scrum. Any rugby follower will tell you that if your scrum is under the pump the last thing you want is a scrum within 5 or so metres of your line. For Blues supporters though this was like Christmas had come again. The scrum was won, Blues went through a few phases in the opposition 22 and Dan Thorne went over for Blues third try, successfully converted by himself. Only two points in it now and there was a feeling that Blues were slowly getting on top. This was further emphasised when Dan Thorne kicked a penalty to put Blues in the lead for the first time in the game. It was only one point but it meant the pressure on Thornbury was being racheted up. Debutant Chris Laidler in the centre was showing his worth with some lovely touches both in attack and defence and for the second debutant, under 18 Colt scrum half Sidney Adams things were about to get very special. He was making a sound start to his senior career and when Thornbury were forced to carry over to give Blues a 5 metre scrum , the forwards again did the business and Sidney showed his acceleration from the base of the scrum by going over for Blues third try. A try on debut, well done Sidney. With twenty minutes remaining Blues were now 27-21 ahead, the visitors were starting to make a few errors and they must have been wondering why they weren't able to replicate their second half performance of our earlier fixture. The answer was in Blues attitude towards defence, their scrapping for every ball, their line speed and spacing and the skill they were showing in putting Thornbury under constant pressure. At this point Thornbury hadn't fired a shot in the second half and they took another knock five minutes later when Michael Klichovicz dived on a loose ball over their try line. The successful conversion by Dan Thorne took the score to 34-21. Going into the final stages of the game Thornbury began to gain some field position and even though Blues had a thirteen point lead all of a sudden the feeling was the job was not yet done and it took a monumental defensive effort to keep Thornbury out. Morgan Gray made two try saving tackles and Harry Waye Branch won a priceless turnover five metres out. The relieving kick went into touch twenty metres from Blues try line and Thornbury then won a penalty deep inside Blues danger zone. This was the pattern of the last five minutes or so, Thornbury making a great effort to secure at least one if not two bonus points. The action was now all within five to ten metres of Blues line but with all the effort Thornbury were putting in Blues kept them at bay and the final whistle was met with great delight all round along with the realisation that Blues had denied Thornbury any bonus points.

The large crowd at Monks Lane had seen a Blues performance characterised by grit, determination and skill and there remained the business of presenting his cap for 100 appearances to Harry Waye Branch and to Dan Thorne a cap and a blazer for his 300 appearances. Well deserved by both players. As everyone was warming up in Kickers at the end of the match one of the supporters said that whilst 300 caps is outstanding let's not forget about the number of training sessions over the years this has encompassed. Dan has rarely missed a training session and at two a week and pre season sessions that amounts to something approaching if not more than 600 sessions and as captain he has driven standards for a long time. Staggering. And the final accolade, a shout out to Dan by Big Jim Hamilton and Andy Goode on the Rugby Pod.

As usual thanks to lots of people. Saturday saw one of the biggest crowds seen at Monks Lane this season and thank you to everyone who turned up in not great weather to support the boys. Thanks also to our sponsors, Lousie and her team for providing the hospitality throughout the day, to referee Sam Peters for his officiating and keeping the game flowing at a good pace, to Simon Best for organising the half time mini rugby display, to Martin Paice and his team of medics, to Blues manager Mick Futcher and to the Thornbury players, committee and supporters. They were great hosts when we visited them last year and I trust they had an enjoyable day at Monks Lane in spite of the outcome. We wish them well for the rest of the season. And last but certainly not least Head Coach James McAvoy would like to thank Will Reeve for his coaching support this season. Will has developed a good rapport with the players and like Macca takes a keen analytical approach to everything rugby. Standing next to them during games is very insightful in terms of what they see during games, subtle changes they may want to see being displayed on the pitch and the amount of encouragement they give to the players during games. Thank you gents for your time and enthusiasm.

Unfortunately the Stags game at Chipping Norton was postponed but hopefully next week's game for them, home against Hungerford will go ahead as planned and for those not making the trip west to Trowbridge to support Blues, there are worse places to be than Monks Lane on a Saturday afternoon cheering on the next generation of Blues players.

Brian Lee