On the back of two defeats after returning from the mid season break Fullers knew they needed to up the tempo when they visited A&C on Saturday afternoon.

Unfortunately the tempo was all A&C who played their game plan very well and stuck 3 tries, only one of which was converted, inside the opening 12 minutes to shell shock Fullers and please the large home crowd.

Fullers eventually got their act together and started to play some good rugby and plenty of territory but they couldn’t get the ball where they needed as penalties were conceded and the home defence stood firm. Fullers already missing a few regular players due to injury lost big ball carrier Sam Tinsley after 20 minutes which unsettled the back line a little.

Fullers pack was functioning extremely well with young Josh Caldwell at no8 in for George Harvey, as was the line out with Nathan Mann making his first performance of the season and as Fullers upped their game they stopped the onslaught until the last play of the half which saw former Fullerian Tom Fawssett chip the defence to allow their winger to score the bonus point try to end the half and the game also that of Dan Evans who picked up a injury in the process.

Half time 22-0

A seething halftime team talk from head coach Gavin Jakeman couldn’t stop the home side coming straight out and bagging their 5th of the day to stretch the lead further to 29-0.
But thankfully as A&C tired Fullers kept going and off yet another dominant scrum captain Ben Matchett skipped his way to the tryline to score and convert his own try and it felt Fullers could pull themselves right back into the game for a moment. Only for the home side to score another two well worked tries to virtually end any changes of fullers getting anything out of the game.
Fullers did score and two good tries in the dying minutes through James Maher and Kieron Cavanagh but there wasn’t enough time on the clock for a try bonus point unfortunately.

A really frustrating game with no less than 16 scrum penalties for Fullers showed their sheer pack dominance and rightly so they felt hard done by not having the man advantage option which was available to the referee.

Full time 43-19

Fullerians host bottom side Windsor next week who picked up their first win of the season on Saturday so Fullers know they’ll need to get back to form before being pulled into a relegation battle.