Club of the Week: Oxford
Oxford RLFC have had a flying start to their Kingstone Press Championship One story.
After nine league fixtures the club are in a healthy fourth position, with a record of five wins and four losses.
For a brand new outfit like Oxford this is almost too good to be true, but coach Tony Benson says that a high league finish is not one of the club’s main targets for their maiden campaign.
“Although we have consistently been sitting in the top four all season, we see that as a bonus. It is probably a good measure of our progress in player development, but our objectives when we set this team up were more straight forward than that,” explained Benson.
“We are here to grow the game in Oxfordshire. Our measures involve growing playing numbers, growing our attendance and developing local players to a professional level.”
Benson feels this had has definitely been the case and there is plenty of evidence to back him up.
“The local amateur team, Oxford Cavaliers, have struggled for numbers on occasions in the past, but now they have plenty of players and are already looking to move up to Tier 3 in the Southern League.
“Also we are now consistently attracting support to an average of 350 per game, and we expect to grow that to over 500 by the last home game.”
Obviously, the on-field performances of his side have not gone unnoticed by Benson and he does see the improvement in skill of his players as another highlight of the journey so far.
“The stand out players have been the likes of Sean Morris, Oliver Johnson, Andrew Hoggins and Matty Fianda who all now look more than comfortable at Championship One level.”
To win tickets to Oxford’s next home Kingstone Press Championship One match, against Gloucestershire on Sunday 30th June, click here.
Kingstone Press Cider has teamed up with LoveRugbyLeague to celebrate all things great about the rugby league Championships. For the rest of the season, ‘Championing the Championships’ campaign will put a weekly spotlight on each Championship and Championship 1 club to focus on their most memorable moments, look back at the clubs heroes and reward the loyal fans. Read more.
