A much improved performance from the Blues saw them gain a hard earned draw at Moseley on Wednesday night. With a much changed line-up the spirit and execution was a far improved from the loss at Durham and the coaches came away much happier that the squad is moving in the right direction. The first quarter of the match saw the home side dominate possession and territory but a resolute and determined Oxford defence didn’t buckle and remained firm to keep their line intact. With half-time approaching and the Blues having gained some good set piece possession they were the fist to score when hooker Nick Gardner on his debut scored out wide, with fly-ha;d Sam Egerton adding the difficult conversion to make the score at the break 7 – 0.
Moseley got the first score of the second half with a penalty from their fly-half, but Oxford responded soon after when No 8 and Captain Mike Rickner dotted down from a 5 metre push over scrum, replacement fly-half Matt Shorthose added the conversion. Moseley then hit back to narrow the score with a converted try, before Shorthose putting the Blues 7 in front with a well struck penalty. With almost the last play of the game, Moseley managed to tie the game up with their second converted try to make honours even at the full-time whistle.
The Blues now look forward to their first home game of the season when they host Leicester Tigers on Monday 8th October, KO 7.15pm.

Team Lewis Anderson, Nick Gardener, Bob Baker, Tim Little, Jason Law, Dugald Macdonald, Sam Perrin, Michael Rickner, Andrew Mcculla, Sam Egerton, James Dargan, Will Boardman, Hee-Won Cho, Henry Hughes, Sam Wareham

Subs Anthony Connor (on for Nick Gardener), Andrew Grounds (on for Lewis Anderson), Matt Powell (on for Bob Baker), Sam Hitchings (on for Jason Law), Matthew Shorthose (on for Sam Egerton), Duncan Bucknell (on for Dugald Macdonald), Hugo Batten (on for Sam Wareham), Alastair Adams-Cairns

Scores T: Nick Gardener (1), Michael Rickner (1), Sam Egerton (1), Matthew Shorthose (1) C: Matthew Shorthose (1)