On a fresh autumn afternoon at Iffley Road, the Women’s Blues welcomed Bristol University for their fourth BUCS League fixture, having won two and lost one previously they were looking  for their third win to stay near the top of the division. The first half saw the home side put in a somewhat jaded performance which saw them 17 points down after just 25 minutes, however a try on the stroke of half-time from full-back Maddie Hindson was the ‘fillip’ they needed to make in to the break. Their second half performance was much improved and they scored two tries from centres Zoe Nunn and Megan Carter, the latter converting her own try, and did not allow the visitors to cross their line in the second 40 minutes, which saw the teams tied on 17 points at full-time.

Next week the Blues travel to arch rivals Cambridge for the first of their three encounters with them this season.

Team Hazel Ellender, Anna Bidgood, Shekinah Opara, Katie Collis, Carla Schmidt, Ailsa Clark, Phoebe Haste, Hannah Cooper, Abby D’Cruz, Nina Jenkins, Zoe Nunn, Megan Carter, Connie Hurton, Clodagh Holmes, Madeleine Hindson

Subs Esme Haywood (on for Nina Jenkins), Joanna Male (on for Hazel Ellender), Emily Cohen (on for Hannah Cooper), Meryem Arik (on for Carla Schmidt), Joss Barker (on for Phoebe Haste), Kehinde Lawal, Siobhan Pebody

Scores T: Megan Carter (1), Zoe Nunn (1), Madeleine Hindson (1) C: Megan Carter (1)

Also on Wednesday, the Panthers made the trip north to Stoke to face a Staffordshire University side, who unfortunately were only able to raise 12 players in opposition. Under BUCS regulations Oxford had to match their 12, despite having 20 players available themselves and a somewhat scrappy and bad tempered affair saw the home side prevail by 38 points to 27.

Scorers to follow.