Bicester 0 Stow 37
Southern Counties North
STOW convincingly won this encounter on Saturday and along with it a try bonus point as a reshuffled back line that included two forwards played their part in a dominant performance.
The Stow forwards in the loose had the upper hand but were matched in the tight. Early pressure resulted in a George Roddan penalty but several good plays could not quite be converted into points.
However, it was only a matter of time before Bicester had to crack, as they struggled for possession so had to defend. A lineout close to the Bicester line was secured and when the drive came on Craig Chapman scored an unconverted try.
For all Stow’s efforts they had to wait for some time until the next score. A scrum centre field in their own half was won, the back row broke and took play into the Bicester 22, and Chapman offloaded to Henry Teare who scored close to the posts, leaving Roddan a simple conversion to put Stow 15-0 up at half time.
Stow now had the slope in their favour and soon used it to their advantage, as Teare broke several tackles on a scything 40m run and produced a neat offload to James Holmes who fed George Plum for another score.
The bonus point try came almost immediately as clever kicking form Dave Lane pinned Bicester back in their own 22 and from a 5m scrum the ball went blind to winger Tim Peachey for the touchdown in the corner.
Two more quickfire tries followed, as ball from a lineout went left then switched right with James Holmes breaking through to score, again unconverted.
The final try came again from pressure up front, as the forwards rampaged towards the Bicester line then released Teare for his second in front of the posts. Roddan converted.
The last ten minutes saw Bicester show resolve and camp in the Stow 22 but, despite two yellow cards for the visitors, Bicester still could not score.
On Saturday Stow entertain Drifters as both sides put their 100 per cent records after two games on the line.