South West One

South West One
Bracknell 29 v Redingensians 3
By Henry La

Match photos at http://www.solidphotos.com/main.php?g2_itemId=18468

Bracknell were quick to recover from what they feel was the injustice of last week’s narrow defeat away to Clifton by comfortably beating local rivals Redingensians 29-3 at Lily Hill on Saturday. The visitors came with high hopes of beating Bracknell, as they did in last season’s Berkshire Cup but, the home team had other ideas.

Coach Chris Sheasby, back from his successful trip to Dubai where he played for the Christina Noble team who defended their IRB International Veterans title, said “The boys played no different to the way they did against Clifton last week. This was by dominating the game and when they do, the other team get tired. You could see this as well today where we scored 50% of our points in the final 20 minutes.”

Considering last week’s game, “Both last week and this we have made good teams look average, last week we got punished for it because referee Mr Friend thought we had become the transgressors and our actions warranted yellow cards but, when Clifton did the same, they received warnings and didn’t get binned! This week, the referee (Mr Richard James) had a feel for the game and understood the way we were playing.”

Asked what’s changed since the poor performance against Old Patesians Sheasby said, “The recent change in laws has created inconsistency and confusion so little things can now turn a game. Against Old Pats we were slow to work out that they weren’t throwing everything into the tackles and we were being caught out. Since then, we have adapted our play at this phase plus we’ve also changed some of our attacking moves to give ourselves additional space in penetrating defences.”

Continuing he then described the reason his team were faltering when close to the opposition try line, “We also handled badly in the ‘kill zone’; today we showed more patience and looked at our options. I was also pleased with the way players coming in like Neil (Higgins) and Gareth (Staples) fitted in because they provide completion to regular players.”

Asked about felt after about his own form he said, “I felt good; maybe it is because I don’t have to play every week. I must have been a plant in a former life because they like photosynthesis on them and the sun also seems to charge up my own batteries.”

This Saturday Bracknell visit Coney Hill to replay the match abandoned in November, of this Sheasby felt, “We go down there full of confidence and due to it being a cup weekend we are the only league match (South West One) playing. A win shoot us away from the bunch below and get us into a challenging position for the 2nd league place. The players have told me that they are tired of saying we are a good side, we now want to take steps to be a great side and I believe we have the potential after recently showing glimpses of it.

Finally, he said, “We view the period up to Christmas as a mini season and we looked to win the last three games, Redingensians today, Coney Hill and then the grudge match away to Old Pats. We will then lick our wounds; hopefully in 2nds place then in the final half of the season get some luck to catch Clifton. But if not, we don’t fear a play-off with the London runners up because no one there is taken that league by the scruff of the neck and, none of them scare me so, if we have to do it the longer way then we will!

Bracknell, playing up the slope, took the game to Redingensians from the kick off. Conditions were perfect with a chill in the air and on a giving pitch in front of a mixed crowd for this local derby. The visitors immediately found the home forwards a handful giving away a number of penalties but instead of going for penalty kicks Bracknell went for the harder option of a lineout and drive.

In the first 10 minutes there we four clear cut chances and only desperate tackling prevented Bracknell scoring but on 12 minutes, referee James decided that the visitors had pushed their luck once too often showing the yellow card to Gavin Marsh.

After 20 minutes the pressure told when Bracknell’s winger Stuart Mackay, who is now starting to find his top form, finished off a good cross field move to open the scoring in the corner.

Ben Nowak missed a difficult conversion but the home team had a 5-0 lead.

Bracknell’s forwards and backs continued combined well but made the odd mistake and it was from one of these on 30 minutes that enabled the visiting fly half Spike Chandler to score from a penalty narrowing the difference to 5-3. Redingensians could have gone ahead if Chandler had taken advantage of two more penalty opportunities but, even in attack, the visitors were under considerable pressure from the Bracknell defence. So the score remained 5-3 until half time with Bracknell looking the better team but Redingensians were clearly still in the game.

From the restart, Redingensians took the game to Bracknell but failed to take advantage of some poor Bracknell defensive kicking and tacking. Even after the home team went down to 14 men after Kai Blankley was shown a yellow card on 46 minutes the visitors could not break down the line of green defenders which goes to show the excellent all round defence employed by the Lily Hill team.

This was the only chance the Reading team would have and in the end the visitors paid the price as Bracknell effortlessly ran in 4 tries in the second half with Peter Hill, playing in place of the injured Kenny Barry, making an effective contribution to all of them. The first came on 55 minutes when Ollie Jones finished a cutting move through the tiring Redingensians defence. Then substitution of Rudal Aiono for Chris Sheasby on 63 minutes was important as it brought a fresh motivation to the Bracknell attack. He soon instigated a scoring move by quickly off loading the ball which was rapidly moved first right, then left for winger Nick Shears to finish off in the corner.

Ben Nowak missed the difficult conversion but at 15-3 the screws were being turned. Next Jones scored his second try after Nowak just failed to get over the line then Higgins rounded off another convincing team display when on the 80th minute, he scored under the posts.

Nowak converted both and Bracknell won by 29-3. The sobering thought is that if they had taken all of their chances Bracknell could have scored 50 or 60 points, such was their overall domination.

After skipper Ben Nowak said “I was really pleased. There was a lot of mental resolve out there especially when we needed to dig deep and we defended well for the whole game. This is important because people don’t always understand that even though we were only 5-3 up at half time, the pressure we were exerting was taking its toll on their defence who were dead on their feet at the end which enabled to pull away. This was a team performance; everyone stepped up and carried the ball nicely. OK, there were a few mistakes that we will work on but you always get that and it has been a great response from the Old Pats game showing we are again, on the way up.”

Bracknell will now travel with confidence to Coney Hill who will be waiting with their own style to try to destabilise Bracknell’s text book defensive system. To do this they will need to play at the edge of legality so it is hoped that the referee will be on the ball as well. If they do win Bracknell has the chance to move into 3rd level on points with Redingensians but with a better point’s average.

*** Courtesy of Bracknell Times