Stamford College Old Boys are beaten by Thorney Rugby Club in a pre-season friendly

Stamford College Old Boys gained valuable playing time ready for the start of the league season this weekend when they travelled to rivals Thorney on Saturday.

The Old Boys team welcomed debutants Aaron Beschizza, Will Dixon and Jacob Hartles who all played their part in a hard thought encounter with the Stamford side using 24 players with some being tried in new positions.

College were playing against the wind in the first half and Thorney utilised their big runners but the College were holding firm with some big early hits from Niles Prior, Ollie Sherwin and Dom Hearne.

When College were able to get their hands on the ball, they were unable to make that final pass in the windy conditions and this enabled Thorney to add more pressure with the scrums driving the Old Boys back.

The College line out was holding strong with Josh Moverley stealing the ball on occasions and they started to build some structure with Jonny Beall making ground by bursting through the Thorney defence.

College were forced into an early substitution when Tom Osbourne received an injury. Ryan Whitmore came on and put in some good tackles to stop Thorney from making ground.

Thorney were first on the scoresheet when their fly half ran through a gap in the College defence, running one-on-one at Liam Greenslade.

Although Greenslade tackled the fly half, he offloaded in the tackle to the centre who converted his try.

A second try was quick to follow in similar fashion to the first only this time down the wing, Greenslade making another covering tackle but the ball was offloaded to the Thorney winger. The try wasn't converted as the hosts led 12-0.

College made another substitution with Tyler Houston being replaced by Carl Brierley-Lewis who immediately made an impact with his burst of pace.

He chased up a kick and the ball bounced nicely into his hands and he coasted in from 22 metres to score under the posts for a try that Beschizza converted.

Thorney immediately replied with a try of their own after building phases through their forwards, the conversion was missed leaving the half-time score 17-7 in the home side's favour.

The second half of the match began with two early Thorney tries creating a tougher game for the College team.

College looked to their bench and Harry Bell came on and made an impact with some strong tackles and closing the Thorney defence down.

Old Boys began to put their patterns into practice and, from a lineout move, the ball was given to the backs.

Greenslade used his pace to run around the onrushing defence and score in the corner. Beschizza added the conversion to make it 29-14.

Thorney weren't done there though as they scored two more unconverted tries.

Entering the final 20 minutes 39-14 adrift, College had a big task and spent the majority of it in the Thorney half.

Alan Flanders made some good tackles but Thorney were able to clear their lines and began to run at College.

Greenslade stole the ball from a ruck and kicked it clear to Bell who, using his pace, was able to hack the loose ball up the pitch and score under the posts. Beschizza again converted to make it 39-21 at the full time whistle.

Beall was voted man of the match for his big hits in the middle of the field and strong running.

College will look to put this behind them and focus on the weekend where both the first and second teams are in action.

The firsts travel to Northampton Men's Own while the second team make the short trip to Stamford Rugby for a merit league match.