With skipper, Chris Chapman and vice captain, Tom Bridgeman, already unavailable, the Blues were hit with late withdrawals from backs Andy Byrne and Jonty Hallett, and forward George Lyness, which saw Adam Price re-called and Gareth Rees make his debut, whilst a fit again Aaron Kellman came in on the wing, and Jamie Manley back into the backrow, after missing the last 2 games. Ryan Conyard came in at scrum-half for Bridgeman, for his first game of the season.

Matt Neild and Josh Plowright formed a new centre partnership, and the Blues were under pressure from the start when a fumbled kick-off put the home side on the front foot, and it took a tremendous rear-guard action to keep Paviors out until the 9th minute when they eventually chose to kick a penalty after finding the Blues defence impossible to breakdown.

The Blues then took control and eventually a surging run from Simon Bartley was halted metres short, but fellow backrow forward Ollie Barnes was on hand to crash over for the opening try. The touch judges could not agree on whether the conversion went over, so the referee had no option but to disallow the kick, which was, in the end, to prove crucial to the outcome of the game. With half-time approaching, Paviors re-took the lead with a penalty, to go into the break with a 6-5 lead.

The Blues again took the initiative on the re-start, and a quickly taken penalty from Bruce Keir saw the fly-half break through and feed Conyard who scored a fine opportunist try.This time there was no doubt about Daniels conversion, as it split the uprights perfectly.

Within minutes Daniel extended the lead with a penalty and the home side were struggling to contain the now rampant Blues. 11 minutes into the half and Daniel kicked another penalty to stretch the lead to 18-6, and at this stage there was only one side in it.

Paviors fought back and scored a converted try to close the gap to 18-13, and as the game drew to a close Daniel was just wide with 2 long range efforts which would have secured the points for the Blues. More significantly, the second penalty, deep into injury time, was prevented from going dead by the alert Paviors wing, who ran the ball back through a disorganised Blues chase. Paviors worked their way downfield and Tim Bayes was yellow carded for collapsing a maul and then with time well up, Danny Noble followed when he was adjudged to have deliberately knocked on, an offence which Paviors committed in the first half, much nearer their own line, and which had only resulted in a penalty for the Blues when a try would have most certainly been scored!

With the Blues now down to 13, and a pumped up Paviors closing in on the line, the home side ran the penalty and after several phases scored a try to level the scores. The conversion was successful and the home side had somehow won a game, which even their own people admitted should have gone the other way.

The Blues for their part, could be proud of their performance, in the main, although they would be the first to admit that they should have put the game to bed long before the end, and can only blame themselves for letting Paviors off the hook.

RAJ Man of the Match: Jamie Manley