The early proceedings were dominated by Oldfield, who mounted a series of close quarter attacks inside the home 22 and it was no surprise when they deservedly took the lead as Dave McHugh burrowed over for a try after several rucks close to the line. Ali Lane added the conversion.

Good handling by the Avon backs saw them respond by creating the position for Jonny Batchelor to close the gap with a penalty after an earlier attempt had rebounded off the posts. But Oldfield had the edge in the set pieces and seemed sharper in the loose as Avon seemed slightly subdued in the first half and they extended their lead with another try from a pick and drive by Max Regan.

After Josh Hiscott was held up just short of the line, Avon suddenly sprung into life as flanker Ian Burnell burst through midfield and produced a magical offload out of the back of his hand which allowed winger Iain Parris to scamper clear for his 7th try in 8 matches. With Batchelor adding the extras, the gap was now reduced to 2 points but Avon continued their unfortunate habit of conceding a try on the stroke of half time as another Oldfield pick and drive saw Richie Gibson claim the touchdown.

The half time re-appraisal paid off for Avon as they scored a magnificent counter-attacking try as crisp passing amongst their backs led to man-of-the-match Guy Palmer feeding winger Matt Thresher who showed great determination to touch down in the corner for a scintillating try. Avon then took the lead after Oldfield illegally collapsed a powerful lineout drive close to the line and scrum half Kiddie Sheikh showed great awareness to score their 3rd try from the quickly taken short penalty. Although Sheikh was injured in the process, veteran Damo Sawyer took over and added his brand of experience and motivation to Avon’s cause.

Once again Oldfield came back strongly and regained the lead as skipper Rhys Redman collected their bonus point try from a line out drive. This seemed to spur Avon on inside the last quarter as they now began to dominate with Dan Cousineau and Zak Harwood making strong inroads which allowed fly half Rob Fitch to coolly slot a drop goal to open up a single point lead. With Avon now in the ascendancy, they were denied their 4th try by determined Oldfield defence but Batchelor put the result beyond doubt with a final penalty to close the game out for a well-deserved win.

Afterwards coach Kai Harwood said “Whilst this wasn’t our best performance, we played with huge grit and determination to get back into the game with 2 breath-taking tries and showed the depth of our squad with 4 enforced changes from last week. This should stand us in good stead for our visit to St Bernadettes next week.”