Towcestrians RFC played host to a Reading team that has struggled this season with only one win from their first five league games, however, they came to Greens Norton Road with an attitude that belied their league position and proved difficult opponents to break down, in fact it was the visitors who started more brightly, pinning Tows back, only for Winger James Hale on his first start for the Towcestrians to pick off a Reading pass and run three quarters of the pitch to score, Ben Young converting for a 7 – 0 lead.

Reading quickly replied with a penalty of their own before Tows started to find their way into the match and played some decent rugby in small patches, gaining an upper hand in the scrummage and forcing Reading into errors, securing three further penalties by Young to extend their lead to 16 -3

In an error strewn game in poor conditions continuity was always going to be difficult to find and despite creating chances Tows were unable to finish them, and should have had three tries before half time.

The Second half continued in the same fashion, with errors from both sides as the weather worsened, Reading managed to make a period of pressure count and crossed for a try before Tows finally got the ball down the line to right winger Alex Chalcraft to run in to make the final score 21 - 8

After the game Tows Head Coach Robbie George looked for the positives “Reading came to play and are certainly a much better side than their results suggests, I am sure they will upset a few people this season, we looked rusty and am sure we will improve next week on this performance”

Coach Darren Snook had praise for some of the young players in the side “They were a hard side to break down and it was a disciplined effort from our guys, I thought James Hale on debut showed what a good player he is and I was really pleased with Ben Young starting his first game at 10”

Next week the Tows travel to Oxford Harlequins