Bicester won’t forget about Marlow’s Dre

Marlow 13-11 Bicester

Dre Raubenheimer held his nerve on debut to kick Marlow to a narrow 13-11 victory over

Bicester at Riverwoods on Saturday afternoon.

This was a game of attrition between two evenly matched teams, but it was Marlow who claimed four very welcome opening days points in this bruising Southern Counties North encounter.

Marlow certainly started the stronger, with their forward pack working hard to create clean ball for the backs to use, and their superior speed at the breakdown, and ability to break through the gain line, resulted in Pat Toone crashing through Bicester's last line of defence to open the scoring.

The try was well converted by Raubenheimer and the only additional score of the half again came from the boot of the 18-year-old, after a penalty was awarded following a side entrance into the ruck. Leading 100 the home side appeared to have a handle on the game, however, their grip on the contest was slowly loosened in the second half.

The visitors brought a fresh intensity to their play in the second half, narrowing the deficit through a couple of penalties before furrher pressure led to them scoring a classy try of their own to edge in front.

The home side were spurred into a late response, and when Bicester conceded a penalty wide on the touchline in the final minute, Raubenheimer was the coolest man at Riverwoods, bisecting the posts with his kick to earn the hosts victory.

Ian Thomson was named Marlow's man of the match.

Next up for Marlow is a visit to High Wycombe on Saturday.