The heavy underfoot conditions suited the direct Grove style of play whilst Banbury could never get into their stride to play their usual brand of free-flowing rugby. They also did not help their cause with some uncharacteristic sloppy passing and handling, whilst the ball was lost too often in the tackle.

It was Banbury who enjoyed the better of the opening exchanges testing the home defence, but failed to take the lead when the usually reliable Eddie Phillips missed two penalty opportunities.

The Grove forwards started to stamp their authority on proceedings and when they forced a scrum close to the Banbury line they opened the scoring with a pushover try. This was shortly followed when Rory Gratwohl forced his way over from close range following a line-out.

Phillips did get Banbury on the board with a penalty, but Grove extended the lead with another close range try from Ben Nicholl, and the first half finished when Banbury lost possession deep in the Grove half with Danny Ferguson seizing the loose ball and having made good ground, kicked ahead and with the bounce evading the Banbury cover claimed the try. With Jona Cali adding one conversion the hosts held a comfortable 22-3 lead at the break.

Two Phillips penalties early in the second half gave Banbury renewed hope, but they received a further setback when Grove won yet another turnover from a Bull's mistake, and good handling and passing allowed Danny Ferguson in for his second try.

To their credit the Bulls did not allow their heads to drop and despite losing James Burge to a somewhat harsh yellow card defended strongly to keep their line intact and the game finished on a positive note when fine breaks from 17 year old George Grieve (pictured), who made a most promising debut, nearly led to tries.

Whilst finishing a well beaten side the Bulls can take heart from a gutsy second half performance marred only by making too many unforced errors.