KINGSTONE PRESS CHAMPIONSHIP ONE

OXFORD RL ended their season with a 22-22 draw at home to Hemel Stags, who qualified for the play-offs.

A third successive victory would have lifted Oxford to seventh place in the final table, but with no relegation to worry about, they were just playing for pride.

The visitors opened the scoring on five minutes when Matt Cook held off the challenge of Sean Morris to wriggle over, with BJ Swindells converting.

Oxford struck back straight away from the kick off when Jimmy Rowland intercepted a Hemel move to go under the posts and he converted his own try.

Hemel kept the ball alive on the last tackle to put Jamel Chislom in for try No 2.

Oxford replied with the score of the match as Yannic Parker, Callum Mulkeen and Rowland combined to set up the former to score, the latter converting for 12-10.

Hemel’s Eddie Mbaraga crashed over from close range after the break, with Swindells adding the extras.

This topsy-turvey clash took another twist when Rowland ran through a gap for his second of the match.

Oxford took the lead when Marcus Brooker went over in the corner after good work from Andrew Hoggins and Mulkeen, Rowland converting for 22-16.

But straight from the kick off they allowed the ball to bounce out and were punished from the resulting scrum with Jy-Mel Coleman going over and converting his own try.

Both sides pressed for a winner in the final 10 minutes, but a draw proved a fair result.

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