Kicking off at the same time as Ireland began their Rugby World Cup campaign with 7 tries in a 50-7 demolition of the mighty Canada, Vets1 hoped to bounce back quickly from the previous week's 5-0 humbling by Longchamp La Hulpe.

Captain Nando had experienced a tough week at selection but through sheer perseverance we arrived at Rosieres 14 players strong. We welcomed Simon Yearsley back for his first game of the season, Marzio/Maurizio/Mario for his first Vets 1 game of 2015/2016, and Gonzalo Cajade and Mike Teaney for their first appearances for the club.

We lined up in an in vogue 4-2-3-1 formation and began well, stroking the ball around purposefully and pushing Auderghem back into their own half. Gonzalo settled into the game immediately, snapping into tackles and providing a focal point for the RBBFC attacks. After winning an early corner, Cedric swung a ball into the mixer and Roger outmuscled two defenders to send an emphatic header into the centre of the goal beyond a static goalkeeper. The sort of goal John Terry used to score.

The pattern of the game stayed the same for the next few minutes with RBBFC making most of the running but Auderghem sounded the warning shots by getting behind our defence too easily on two occasions with long balls from their own back four only to be thwarted by an alert birthday boy Marzio. Auguriii!!

Then, for no apparent reason, we retreated further and further into our own half, inviting trouble. It duly struck. Unlike lightening, twice. Two well hit shots from the edge and well outside the box respectively. We went in at half time 2-1 down.

Nando shuffled the pack at the interval with Yearsley coming on for Luc and Mike Tearney replacing Brian Morris. Lars dropped back to partner Roger in central defence. We started the second half as we started the first, controlling the game. The difference in the second half was that we maintained a greater intensity to our play and never let Auderghem get a territorial foothold.

Gonzalo was causing the opposition increasing levels of trouble with the ball seemingly glued to his feet - the DVD will make uncomfortable viewing for Ledbury - and they regularly had to resort to foul play to stop him. One such tired challenge in the box with about 15 minutes to go produced a penalty. Rice sent the keeper the wrong way and with the entirety of the 2s sucking the ball goalwards, slotted the ball into the bottom left (inside) side netting.

RBBFC pressed for the winner and were denied two potential further penalties as Auderghem ran out of steam and any ability to tackle properly. RBBFC simply ran out of time.

Still, we can be happy with our second half performance in particular, the way we bounced back from last week's disappointment and that of conceding our first half lead. We've clearly added two quality players to the squad and look forward to welcoming an old(ish) stalwart back next week. The season is young yet!