Bath Rugby Academy and England U18 fly-half Freddie Burns came close to dragging Oldfield to an end-of-season Southern Counties South victory at Shaft Road last Saturday.

Burns amassed 18 second-half points with a try, a conversion and three long range penalties before Oldfield eventually had to settle for a narrow 23-26 defeat.

Defeat to Frome, who finished third behind champions Trowbridge and runners-up Wootton Bassett, left Oldfield in sixth place after their own promotion campaign ran out of steam over the previous six weeks.

“We’ve actually taken a big stride forward this season from where we were a year ago in terms of our league position,” said skipper Lee Sumsion.

“We had a terrific run through the middle part of the season which lifted us into promotion contention for a while.  What we have definitely done this season is build a strong foundation for next season because our younger players will be a year older and more experienced.”

Oldfield grabbed the lead with a try inside the first minute from Jack Burns, but Frome were back on terms quickly when former Bath Rugby Academy wing Jake Babb notched his 30th try this season.

A converted pushover try and the first of two tries from Tom Hanham then put Frome in front at the interval.

Burns then ran the show for Oldfield as they pushed their way back into the contest, with Hanham’s second touch-down enough to seal Frome’s win.