The 34 - 27 scoreline in favour of Oxford just shows how close the County Senior side came to qualifying through to the next round of the County Championship Shield competition. Essex turned up to face an Oxfordshire side with 10 Chinnor (Level 5) players in their side. Perhaps overawed by the excellent facilities of the club and the size of their opponents, Essex went 8 - 0 down inside the first seven minutes to a penalty (2 minutes) and an uncoverted try. With the game being played in the Essex half, the next score to Oxfordshire came on the stroke of 16 minutes with another try to Oxfordshire to take the score to 13 - 0.
As in the match against Leicestershire two weeks previously, Essex then began to find their way in the game and settle down to start the chase. On 28 minutes, fly half Brad Burr (Brentwood) placed an accurate kick deep into the Oxfordshire 22 and from the resulting line out the Essex pack mauled and rucked the ball over the line for Dave Stevens (Thurrock) to touch down for the first Essex try to take the score to 13 - 5. With the Essex backs getting into their stride and the pack feeling far more confident, Essex and Oxfordshire swapped territory for the remainder of the first half with both teams producing some excellent work both in attack and defence. By half time there was no further score and the game looked as though it would go either way for both teams.
Essex started the second half by keeping Oxfordshire pinned into their own half. The pressure on the Oxfordshire line was sustained and following a 5 meter line out, the Essex pack stood firm, and with the pack slipping the ball to Joe Green (Basildon), gave Joe the opportunity to crash over the line from 3 yards out for the County's second try five minutes into the second half. At 13 - 10 an Essex fight back looked on the cards but Oxford's Sam Stoop (Chinnor) picked up a loose ball from the restart and sped over unopposed to open up the gap with a converted try making the score 20 - 10. Essex took the knock on the chin and carried the game back to Oxfordshire. With Brad Burr gaining more control at half back behind the Essex pack, the backs, who had always threatened, finally managed to get the ball out to Emile Solomons ( Brentwood) whose pace took him to the corner flag for a third try to Essex, converted by Brad Burr. With the score now at 20 - 17 the match looked evenly balanced and a penalty to Essex on the stroke of 26 minutes into the second half saw Brad Burr level the scores at 20 - 20.
With 10 minutes left on the clock it was Oxfordshire who siezed the intiative with a try scored out wide on their right wing. Having tied up the Essex defence in the centre of the pitch, Oxfordshire created the space on the right wing for Sam Black (Chinnor) to win the race for the line to give the lead back to Oxfordshire with a converted try to take the score to 27 -20. Two minutes later Sam Stoop increased the Oxfordshire lead to with his second try converted by James Cathcart to give Oxfordshire a lead of 34 points to 20. Though the score would have knocked the stuffing out of many sides Essex played out the match in the Oxfordshire half and not to be outdone, a fine backs move saw Brentwood's Adam Thomas have the last say of the match with a try under the posts converted by his club mate Brad Burr to make the final score 34 - 27.
Head coach Gary Smith summed up the match by praising the team and added, "We had to make a few changes at the last minute for this game which we knew we just had to win to stand a chance of going further on in the competition. We have the making of a good team here and I hope that the experience of these three matches will perhaps help to keep this group of players together for next season. I am grateful for the clubs releasing their palyers for the County and I feel sure that with this cooperation next seaon we can do better. We appreciated that clubs at this level have a tough season ahead of them, but in the breaks it would be helpful to perhaps get the lads together earlier in the seaon so that we can hit the Championship matches running."
