Lone Welsh back row forward Ollie Stedman is out to help preserve his side's unbeaten record when title rivals Bristol visit Oxford today.

 

Sunday’s offering pits first against second in the Greene King IPA Championship table with Justin Burnell’s Exiles looking to maintain their 100 per cent start to the season, and make it seven wins from seven, against a Bristol side who’ve won their last seven in all competitions.

“Bristol will be a really good test - they’ll throw new things at us,” said Stedman.

“They’ve got a big pack, similar to Rotherham, and they like to give the ball a bit of a chance and use their backs. They’ll bring a good all round game.

 

"But we’ve been away to Rotherham and won, we’ve been away to Leeds and won, so it’s just another game against a good team and we back ourselves.”

While Sunday’s clash won’t decide the destination of the Championship title, and all that goes with it, there’s still much at stake with Welsh eager to maintain their unbeaten record at the Kassam, that 100 per cent record and remain top of the league.

 

“It’s a massive point of personal pride for us. We pride ourselves on our own standards and we want to stay unbeaten and win every game, whether that be league or cup, home or away. That unbeaten record is a big thing for us,” said Stedman.

“We look at it game by game and week by week, and our own personal pride in winning each game and getting the best performance we can. At the minute we’re top of the pile and we want to stay there.”

 

Stedman joined Welsh in the summer from Newcastle Falcons, having begun his career at Leeds Carnegie, who he joined as a 16-year-old straight out of school.

He progressed through the club’s academy, captaining the A team and went on to make a handful of first-team appearances.

He knows only too well therefore how impressive a performance it was by Welsh last Sunday at Leeds Carnegie to over-turn a 12-point deficit to win 31-24.

 

“It was a massive test of character for us, but we managed to pull it round and the bench came on and had a big impact,” he said.

“It’s quite a tough place to play. They had a good crowd there on Sunday and they all got behind them. It’s not easy, especially when you’re on the back foot, to come back the way we did. So it’s all credit to the boys and Alex’s [Davies] kicking was outstanding.

 

“Some of the lads who started and played the full 80 minutes put a massive shift in. It was a credit to their fitness and their temperament.

“We knew what we had to do, back our skills and our basics, and stick to the plan, which was to be dominant, win penalties and get on the front foot. It worked in the end.”

 

After leaving Leeds, Stedman played for Westoe before spending a summer in Australia playing 1st Grade Shute Shield for Southern Districts.

A quad injury, however, cut short his season and he returned to join National League One side Tyndale, as he looked to regain full fitness. Nine tries brought him to the attention of Dean Richards.

“Tyndale and the Falcons have quite a good link where they send lads there who aren’t getting a game in the first-team or are being rested,” said Stedman.

 

“So the Falcons keep quite a close eye on what happens there and Dean lives just down road from Tyndale so he pops in to watch games. He spoke to our coach, I had a meeting and that was that.”

He marked his first two games for the Falcons by crossing for tries against Cross Keys and Moseley and played in Newcastle’s British & Irish Cup final defeat to Leinster A.

 

“There were a lot of good players there and a lot of competition, but I got a real good chance to prove what I could do. Unfortunately it didn’t work out going up into the Premiership for me, but I ended up at Welsh which is a pretty good outcome,” said Stedman.

“We’ve got a great foundation here and some great players. Across the board I’d say we’ve a stronger team than we had last season at Falcons. It’s exciting times."