Oxford 1st reach Shield Final

04th February 2008

Oxfordshire Shield Semi Final, Sunday 3rd February 2008 Oxford 32, Gosford All Blacks 10   Oxford played into the face of a strong, cold end-to-end wind in the first half of this Oxfordshire Shield Semi Final match against Gosford All Blacks but survived the conditions to eventually win 32-10. Gosford All Blacks were forced to play their rearranged Berks, Bucks and Oxon Premier League match at Phoenix the previous day and, highlighting the Shield match as the more important of the two, sent their Second XV to Phoenix, which lost 0-69. Oxford survived fierce pressure in the opening minutes and conceded a penalty but the ball hardly left the ground although Tim Ellis made no mistake from in front of the posts a few moments later to give Gosford a 3-0 lead.  Oxford began to settle down and fought back with a series of driving mauls close to the pack before a scintillating break by Tom Olley saw the ball passed to Joe Hartley and then back inside again, only for Gosford to infringe in front of the posts. Amazingly, Olley missed the simple kick. But Oxford came again and when Hartley was stopped just short of the line, a Gosford winger was sent to the sin bin for ten minutes. From the ensuing 5 metre scrum Mark Dickson drove over for an Oxford try which was not converted.  With Oxford's pack now dominating play to win lots of possession, centre Neil Walker broke through in midfield to win the race for a try which Olley converted to give Oxford a 12-3 half time lead, with the wind in their favour still to come. After some brief Gosford activity at the start of the second period, Oxford replied with a driving midfield maul and Dickson broke away to give Hartley a try scoring pass into the corner. Gosford still offered dogged resistance and, in what was now a rare attack, an Oxford flanker spent ten minutes in the bin as Gosford took adavantage with prop Lee Donelly driving over from close in for a try that Ellis converted to reduce his team's arrears. Gosford raised their game but Oxford were inspired by the return of the bin man and a good surge saw Hartley run over for his second try which saw Oxford lead 22-10. There was only one team in it now and Oxford came again with a great handling move on the opposite flank for Olley to crash over for a try, before second row player James Knox broke away from a maul for the last score of the match and a 32-10 Oxford. This was a convincing win for Oxford which saw them deservedly reach the Shield Final, to be played at Iffley Road, Oxford, against the Blue Boar on Saturday 5th April. But there is a need for the team to find a reliable place kicker with what could have been a valuable thirteen points going astray in this match.