They say all good things must come to an end, Ross suffered their first league defeat for over 18 months at Cirencester last Saturday, September 15th.

It was Ross that started the brightest, they quickly re gathered the kick off and were strong with ball in hand with Chris Thomas. Josh Element and Josh Walker all getting Ross over the gainline camped in the hosts’ twenty two.

It seemed only a matter of time before the first try came, however a Ross knock on was gathered by Cirencester and with two quick passes their winger was away. Turnover ball is valuable in the modern game and against the run of play Cirencester found themselves 7-0 ahead.

Ross continued to battle for the rest of the half, Jonnie Baynham, Josh Element and Louis Morgan gave Ross the edge at scrum time and Gavin Oates and Josh Walker kept a steady stream of line out ball, but the Cirencester defence held out with and with only a late Thai Hayward penalty Ross went in at half time 7-3 behind.

The half time team talk was that the game was theirs for the taking, and again Ross started the half brightly, but again history repeated itself. Ross broke from a ruck on halfway, there was a overlap for Ross so quick hands and Ross were in, but the crucial pass was intercepted and the host were gifted another seven points.

Within a few minutes Cirencester had scored again and the contest was effectively over as they took a 19-3 lead into the final quarter. Ross continued to battle, especially up front where they were physical and confrontational. They did get a try late on through Gavin Oates but on the final whistle the score was 26-8.

On Saturday Ross are at home in the RFU National Cup competition against Cirencester, 3pm kick off.

The Bosse interspices man of the match was Chris Thomas.See this week’s paper for more stories like this, available in shops and as a Digital Edition now.