Saturday 6th December 2025
Littlemore Rugby Club
Littlemore 12 V Aylesbury 2’s 14
Litllemore welcomed Aylesbury 2’s to HQ on Saturday.
Sitting comfortably at the top of the league table with 4 from 4 (Littlemore 3rd), and with a convincing win for Aylesbury back in early October, it would be a good test to see how Littlemore had improved in recent weeks & despite coming off the back of a loss against Didcot 2’s last weekend.
Littlemore showed early dominance with much of the possession in the first half of the game, and also earning much of the territory to see them take an early lead. Repeat penalties in their own 22, Aylesbury found themselves having to defend their try line multiple times. A great effort by the forwards saw Darren Massey held up over the line, but their efforts would not go unrewarded.
A quick switch in play saw T. Wilson (full back) & D. Warne (no 8.) link up and get a quick offload for F.Alexander (hooker) to walk in under the posts – a simple conversion for winger George Pride. 7-0
The continuous barrage of noise from the Aylesbury coaching team is clearly a tactic that works well. The squad get annoyed listening to it, and do all they can to get as far away and into the opposition half as soon as possible – and it payed off! 
Even with a man in the bin, Aylesbury found a way back into the game with a pick and go from the young no.8 to touch down to level the scores on half time. 7-7
The second half started in a similar fashion. Littlemore managed a breakaway try that would go unconverted. Kicking into the wind, the ball was well on target to slot between the posts. Even to the point 1 of the touch judges raised their flag to award it. But in the cruelest of instances, a gust blew the ball off target and ricocheting off the posts the wrong direction. 12-7
Finding a way back into the game, it would be a chip and chase that would give Aylesbury the lead they needed into the final 10 minutes and taking the score to 12-14.
A tense 10 minutes saw both teams battle for territory, but it was Littlemore that would appear to push hardest and looked almost certain to take the win had it not have been for Boreas (the cruelest of the wind gods).
Two missed penalty attempts at goal would have secured a mammoth win for Littlemore on home soil. One kick ricocheting off the posts (again!!) and one just pushed wide – both difficult attempts for any kicker in such conditions – as Aylesbury themselves found out at the final whistle, missing their last attempt to bag another 3 points.
A second bonus point secured against a very good Aylesbury side, the squad were extremely pleased with their improved performance despite their narrow loss.
A pleasure to host the team, and thank you for hanging around after the game and enjoying the post match shenanigans.
NEXT GAME – ABINGDON 2’S (HOME)
