By Ian Golden at Iffley Road
Oxford Rugby League’s first ever home match turned out to be a classic, despite rain for the entire game making the ball slippery, as the Scorpions scraped to a 22-20 win in front of 352 boisterous fans.
The match was even throughout and the scoring was try for try for the entire 80 minutes, and in the end it was the kicking of Courtney Davies that won the game for the Scorpions.
Oxford deserved a draw and could have got one. They scored their fourth try in the final minute and had experienced Jonny Leather kicked a successful conversion rather than slicing the ball wide, Oxford would have picked up two points rather than their solitary bonus point.
From a penalty, Scorpions looked for the first try of the game early on, but James Greenwood spilled the already slippery ball and the chance was lost.
At the other end, Alex Thompson almost gave Oxford the lead as he dived over the line from short range but he too mishandled.
Scorpions were first to score when on 12 minutes, Steve Parry kicked a grubber under the sticks and Greenwood pounced. Courtney Davies converted.
Oxford levelled on 21 minutes when Valu Bentley was on the end of a high hopeful bomb that slipped past the Scorpions back-line. Jonny Leather converted.
Scorpions led again on the half hour with a Shae Lyon-Fraser try which Davies converted.
But Oxford hit back near to half-time when Sean Morris stormed through into the corner. Leather missed on this occasion.
Matt Fiander was close to a third try for Oxford but was stopped on the line meaning that the Scorpions had a slender two-point lead at the interval.
Oxford started the second half on fire. The won a quick goal-line drop out and from the resulting set Shaun Robinson almost scored in the corner but was pushed into touch.
Scorpions extended their advantage on 57 minutes when Rhodri Lloyd picked up a loose ball and had a relatively easy sprint to score. Davies missed the kick.
Again Oxford hit back after Leather picked up a stray ball on his own 10 metre line and sprinted virtually the length of the field, converting his own try to level the scores again.
But Scorpions regained the lead again with six minutes remaining when Chris Leyshon scored out on the wing and Davies kicked the tricky conversion.
And the drama continued right into the final minute. Shaun Robinson scored in the corner which meant Leather was under pressure to earn his side a draw, but couldn’t cope with the challenge.