Frampton Cotterell RFC v Old Elizabethans 1st XV
17th January 2026

After a stunning but well deserved, albeit narrow last minute victory at home last week to the league’s second placed team Smiths RFC, this week Es were away to League Leaders Frampton Cotterell RFC. Despite Es being on a real high after such a great win, a high level of unavailability meant the Es squad showed a large number of changes from last week, but that happens sometimes and of course presented a real opportunity for those coming into the squad to prove themselves. As requested by the Skipper (celebrating his 100th Cap for OEs) a good level of away OEs supporters turned up to cheer on the lads and to some extent drown out the Frampton faithful.

As always at the foot of this email you can find all the other league results and the league table.

1st XV SQUAD:: Greg Foord, Fergus Blyth, Callum McCarthy, Matt Bailey, Andrew Barnett, Angus Clifford, Pat Dore, Jakob Harding, Sam Hygate, Monty Nash, Ollie Lunt, Freddie Williams, Scott Tomlins, Tom SD, Ollie Brown, Archie Walker, Alex Lee, Ben Smith

MATCH REPORT:
Some confusion over the kick off time led to many supporters arriving early only to hear rumours that Frampton were missing 5 or 6 key players, something you always take with a pinch of salt especially as we knew our own situation. Es kicked off with the sun at their backs but very quickly Frampton found themselves in the Es 22 and despite Es stealing their lineout Frampton came back strong and after only 4 minutes took a (7-0) lead.

Es scrum initially looked solid but as the afternoon wore on Frampton’s strength in this department disrupted Es getting any clean ball. Equally the lineouts were not functioning as one would hope although Andrew Barnett was doing a grand job in only his second game for the 1st XV and stole a couple of Frampton lineouts.

Until injured in the second half No.8 Jakob Harding was doing his usual rear guard action picking up the ball at the back of a retreating scrum and making good headway. There was however very little else for Es supporters to cheer about as Frampton started to rack up a high score most of their damage coming through their No.23 a large back who burst through to score a number of times.

Es’ defence continued to work extremely hard and it wasn’t really until the last 5-10 minutes of the first half that Es managed to string together some good possession with 3 or 4 phases in the Frampton 22 but alas no scores and the first half came to end with Frampton well in the lead

Half Time score (Frampton Cotterell 36 – 0 Old Elizabethans).

Archie Walker on. Es again started brightly but Frampton soon got back into their stride applying strong pressure and scoring tries and conversions off the back of them.

Es’ scrum was coming under more and more pressure and a number of times lost their put in making it extremely difficult to put together any meaningful attacks. Ben Smith, a really promising new player, was on for Es and made a really good couple of breaks, one to watch for the future.

Alex Lee on. Again, there was little for Es to cheer about but in defence there were some memorable tackles from the likes of Sam Hygate, Scott Tomlins, Freddie Williams, Ollie Brown and Fergus Blyth to name but a few. Despite the rousing cries from Es’ stalwart Matt Bailey Es found themselves on the back of a real thumping with the final score at (65-0).

On the back of last week’s tremendous win coming down with such a thump sometimes happens. No doubt there will be some sore bodies, but hopefully the players will lick their wounds to bounce back next week. See you there to cheer on the lads vs Cinderford II; another tough challenge. “C’mon Es!"

FINAL SCORE: Frampton Cotterell 65 – 0 Old Elizabethans

Spectators Man of the Match: Andrew Barnett: Looked as if he was really enjoying himself and hopefully will follow in the footsteps of his skipper by racking up 100 caps over the next few years.

Full League Table and Fixture List below

Report by: Paul 'Blakey' Barrington

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