So good to be back!

Frome RFC 1st 34. Barton Hill RFC 1st 21

RUGBY was finally back at The Lane, when the Frome RFC 1st XV welcomed Bristol based Barton Hill RFC 1st in the second of their preseason warm up fixtures. 

Head coach Toby Culff commented “It was great to welcome Barton Hill to The Lane and to see friends and family on the sideline. It felt so, so good to be back. Barts were a terrific opponent for the day – hard but good humoured, physical but fair – and we hope they enjoyed their visit.  

Having not played 80 minutes together since March 2020, there was bound to be plenty of rust on show, and some of the rugby played yesterday was definitely of the rusty variety. However, preseason fixtures aren’t about the pursuit of perfection at the very best of times. In these strange circumstances, even less so. 

“What was really important was to get a full game under our belts and to start getting that Saturday feeling back – the gameday routine, the warmup, the emotional buildup, the physical demands of a full match.  

None of us were satisfied with the way we played but there’s no sense being over critical. We’ll learn from the experience, we’ll be better next week, and we’ll be even better by the time we play Marlbrough on Sept 4th. We will be sad, though, to be without Charlie Barwood and our talisman, Elliott Bowler, following their serious injuries yesterday. We wish them the very best for their recoveries.” 

Post-match we caught up with 1st XV Captain Alex Mallon who commented “Unfortunately we didn’t start the way we planned. Taking early penalties in front of the posts allowed us to start building a score. However silly mistakes and not finding the intensity in defence we needed led to us being 9-21 down at half time. The second half however, was a different story, we managed to show glimpses of the range of our abilities and what we can do and what we have been training towards. 

“Finishing 34-21 shows we definitely grew into the game and that we were able to show what we are capable of. Significant injuries to key players played a part in this game and we wish the speediest of recoveries to those members of the squad!” 

Frome RFC 1st 34 – 21 Barton Hill RFC 1st. Trys: Clarke x2, James x1, Frost x1. Conversions: Thompson x1, Westlake x1. Penalties: Thompson x3 

Next Saturday the 1st XV travel to Cleve RFC in their third & final preseason warm up fixture ahead of their South West 1 East campaign, which kicks off on the 4th September at home against Marlborough RFC.  

With their season starting a little later, the 2nd & 3rd XV kick start their preseason on September 11th and 14th with home & away fixtures against Bath based Walcot RFC.