Ross opened their league campaign with a hard fought win over Cheltenham North, prevailing by the smallest margin 11-10.

Ross looked tentative in the first quarter and as a result it was the visitors who took the lead with a well worked try, putting the centre in to score wide out on the left.

The conversion was missed but Ross found themselves 5-0 down after twenty minutes. The score seemed to shake Ross out of their malaise and they slowly began to work themselves back into the game. Lee Osborne converted two penalties and Ross went into the break 6-5 ahead.

The third quarter saw Ross back to their best, they upped the tempo of the game and if it wasn’t for a combination of some good defending and early season rustiness, Ross could easily have had 3-4 tries. However they did convert one of the chances, some strong ball carrying out of defence, firstly by Casey Morgan then Josh Walker set up a ruck on the halfway, they moved the ball quickly right and some well timed handling by Dan Field and Luke Mair put Craig Smith away. He rounded the fullback and scored wide out on the right.

Lee could not add the two but Ross moved 11-5 clear. Ross could not get that crucial next score to put them two scores clear and calm the nerves of a good crowd.

Cheltenham threw all they had at Ross in the last ten minutes but the Ross defence held firm as Cheltenham camped themselves in the Ross twenty two.

Controversially, they did finally get a try squeezing in on the left hand touchline, the referee judged he had touched down before going out of play and the try stood, the conversion would have taken Cheltenham 11-12 ahead, but it was missed and Ross held out comfortably for the remaining few minutes to register the win.

The Man of Ross Inn ‘Man of the Match’ was captain Casey Morgan. This Saturday, September 15th, Ross are away to Cirencester, 3pm kick off.