One of our coaches said after this game "This was the best we've played in defeat". We knew coming into the game that Ruislip had a mean defence, having conceded fewer points than any other in the division up to this game, and we knew we would have to fight hard to break them down. We asked for fight and, except for a 5 minute period at the end of the first half, the lads showed real intensity and resilience to fight to stay in the game. Pitch conditions weren't great but it was the same for both teams and Ruislip settled into their rhythm faster. However, resilient defence from us meant it was slow progress for Ruislip and it took them more than 15 minutes to score their first try. The second try came about 10 minutes later in a similar way. Our own attack play was let down mostly by handling errors and Ruislip had a strong scrummaging platform which put more pressure on those errors. However, up to this point it was pretty evenly balanced - but then we switched off from the kick-off and gave them an easy score almost under the posts to finish the first half.

At half time we were 17-0 down. From similar positions in previous games, we have crumbled but today the boys were determined to fight back and we were pleased to see our lads playing with more intensity from the whistle. Ruislip's defence was robust but we kept pushing them back with ball in hand and were eventually rewarded with a try from Jake Oliver. Jake made the conversion, leaving us 17-7 down and with the balance of pressure now on our side. Unfortunately we ran out of time before we could secure another try.

Overall, this was a finely balanced game played in sub-optimal conditions where the difference was handling quality and organisational discipline especially in defence. These are consistent themes for us which will be a focus for remaining training sessions this season and probably the off-season too! Pleasingly, the team worked hard for and encouraged each other and the "blame game" that has been an issue in previous matches was not seen today.

Better news came after the end of the game when we learned that our 2nd position in the table was secure - the only rival that could have overtaken us lost one of their outstanding fixtures. This should mean we will be eligible for promotion to division 1 next season - where those defensive and handling skills will be even more important!