Bishop started strongly, Cameron setting Liam away for the first 5 points of the game. Ollie got good distance on his kick from a tight angle, but just missed. The game settled and although we made it too easy for the ball to be ripped, our tackling is vastly improved - a good string of stops by Logan, Jake, David, Mackenzie, and Archie of note, before a superb pass by Boro drew them all square, with their conversion taking them into the lead.

Unfortunately, we again couldn’t quite deliver balls to our wings for a primed Finn and Luca to run at the home side. It was not without superb effort in the middle of the field, Charlie and James working hard, Deacon putting in two fine successive tackles and Danny picking up a loose ball to drive forward. Boro then went further ahead – 12-5, but a ball out by Finn fed Cameron who scored, with Ollie converting to level the scores once more.

More good Bishop play, a thumping Thomas tackle and searching Logan run, and it looked like we might take the lead, with Thomas also splitting Boro’s line, but their impressive No. 8 surged forward, handed off our tackles and restored the home team’s lead – 17-12 at the break.

Middlesbrough started better than us, extending their lead to 24-12, before another Cameron try and Ollie kick kept us in touch at 24-19. Despite some good support by Isaac, George W and Samuel, with Kai at scrum half and notable stops by Benji and Finn, we seemed to lose our way and shape a little, leaving Boro to click the scoreboard up to 41-19, before Cameron added another try, and a smart pass to George G narrowed it further with Ollie converting to take us within touching distance at 41-33.

A late flurry of Bishop effort, including a run from the scrum by David and a smart Liam tap tackle nearly brought us success, but it was not to be.

A hard-fought game then, with some skilful rugby on display by both sides, who then lined up for a good-natured season-ending squad photo-call.

Thanks again due to the home side for hosting us and to Sabrina for supplying delicious energy restoring cakes that were quickly devoured.

We go again in 2023-24!