South West One

South West One
Bracknell 60 v Oxford Harlequins 5

Despite the bright sunshine, Bracknell’s performance on Saturday lit up Lilly Hill with an awe-inspiring display of total team rugby that ripped the heart out of a brave but limited Oxford.
At the end of the game, in recognition of this superb performance, the home supporters congregated as the players left the pitch to a give them a stirring reception. Coach Chris Sheasby was also mobbed as well wishers made their way to the club house to celebrate.
Sheasby was clearly delighted with his team and said, “After we got the two penalties we nearly gave away the advantage from both the restarts. But as soon as we scored the first try we woke up and from then on our decision making was outstanding.”
Continuing he said, “It could have been one of those games where you got into off loading too often. We talked about this at half time and recognised the danger in making 40 meters only to then lose possession and have the opposition push us back to where we started. I think getting to grips with this saved us from winning by a 30 point to 5 margin rather than the 60-5 because, points for and against could be significant at the end of the season.”
Explaining, “ Because the boys did take being cautious it on board, you saw the way they made the break then, kept the ball until we were ready to pass it on. We did this phase after phase, forcing Oxford to either give away penalties or allow us to press to the try line.”
Sheasby also was pleased with, “The nice balance between power and fineness. You could see this in the way our forwards made breaks out of the back line, dragging players and opening holes for others to crash through. Another pleasing thing was to see us getting back to scoring off set pieces with one from a lineout and two from the scrum.”
Bracknell is the only team now undefeated tin 2009 Sheasby believes the reason is, “It is due to the way our determination has been building from the start of the year. It began at Coney Hill where we won after playing well for 40 minutes and I also believe the passing of my mother has pulled us together as a unit.”
Analysing the other four games he said, “The win at Barnstable was great from the point of view of having the character to learn from our mistakes when playing in heavy conditions because we still won despite gifting them the two 95 meter runway tries.`
At Exmouth we played sublime rugby in both the first and second halves but allowed ourselves to fall asleep when we thought we had it won before the final whistle.
The Weston game was simply a brilliant 80 minutes of focussed rugby. The same happened today where we rampaged freely through the opposition. When we play like this there is no one in the league who can live with us.”
Looking back over the season Bracknell’s have had a poor discipline record, questioned about this Sheasby explained that,” The low number of penalties conceded today played an important part in our overall performance. We have the message that we mustn’t push for possession in 50/50 situations but rely on having the confidence that we are good enough to ease back and force when better chances come as opponents makes the inevitable mistakes.”
Regarding the referee’s performance Sheasby said, “He (Mr Richard Bennett) had a great game and I have no idea why there are age rules forcing him to retire at the end of this season! He is by far the best referee in the league and I said this two years ago and last season. It is no coincidence that every time he referees us the players know what they can or can’t do. The game flows and he is fit enough to keep up with the game plus, he is consistent.”
With the free weekend for the first team this Saturday, Sheasby said that some will play in the 2nds game but others will use the time to get fully fit for the remaining games because he felt, “By carefully managing their fitness and lifestyles, it allows the team to go into the second half of the season in the best possible condition to tackle those final games that, can make or break the season.”
Regarding the game, prior to the kickoff watching players go through their warm up routing is a good indicator on how they will perform. It was clear from the effort that Bracknell looked in tiptop condition.
This showed from the kickoff as they drove the Oxford team into conceding two quick penalties which skipper Ben Nowak slotted over, giving his team a 6-0 lead after just 7 minutes. In fact, leading by example, Nowak’s kicking form was tremendous all afternoon as he converted 9 out of 10 opportunities and the only failure hitting an upright post.
Oxford had early chances when Bracknell failed to contain the restarts as the ball arched into the bright sunlight making catching difficult. But a combination of a resolute home defence and lacklustre attacking kept the visitors at bay in these early minutes and they weren’t helped when their fly half Mark Forth missed a simple penalty chance in the 4th minute.
Yet Bracknell failed to tighten their defence because on 12 minutes Bracknell failed to cover the blind side gap and Oxford number 8 Ben Nicholl took advantage by making a terrific break supported by the dangerous winger Nick Sevier. A quick pass then allowed scrum half Anthony Cope to race the 70 meters to the line. Forth again missed his kicking chance but the visitors had alerted the home team of their potential.
The message took just one minute to get through as full back David Budge cleverly chipped ahead for winger Nick Shears to collect and from his first pulverising run of the afternoon, set his back row in motion for Neil Higgins, playing for injured Ollie Smith, to weave his way over the line for the first of his 3 tries.
Nowak hit the post with his kick from the side line but the ‘green machine’ was now warming to the occasion with the experienced second row Alan Leishman, who had a terrific game, leading by example and showing his team mates the quality necessary to be able to compete in the National Leagues should Bracknell get promoted.

From a set move after 17 minutes, Nico Maybury scored and Nowak’s conversion increased Bracknell’s lead to 18-5.
Budge continued to taunt the Oxford defence with clever counter attacks but it was winger Shears who scored next. Picking up a poor clearance he ran 35 meters to the line and included a slick pirouette two yards out that shook off the final defender. Nowak converted and the home team went into half time leading by a comfortable 25-5.
Bracknell’s were looking to play 15 man rugby for the whole game and this was demonstrated by the forwards rampaged through the heart of Oxford’s defence with props Jonny Mirza and Andy Van Zyl forcing the holes that Sheasby had required.
After just 3 minutes into the second half a Mirza run was stopped just short of the line but his clever off load saw Jason Borcherds, better known for his catching ability, scramble round behind the post to set up another Nowak conversion and the Bracknell lead to extend to 32-5.
Oxford still made some spirited runs deep into Bracknell territory but a well organised defence thwarted any try chances. Bracknell’s response was to see Higgins again confuse the visiting defence with a mazy run to score on 61 minutes. Maybury followed this with a try on 70 minutes and Higgins scored his hat trick after 67 minutes.
Finally Jervis Manupenu got on the score sheet on 73 minutes after working hard all afternoon to keep the Bracknell effort ticking over. Nowak again converted and Bracknell players and supporters were soon able to celebrate their highest score of the year.
Skipper Nowak was clearly satisfied with his and his team’s afternoon performance saying,” I was pleased the way we played. Ok, they are a weak team but we still had to go out there and play well enough to put 60 points on them without letting them get into the game.
I was especially pleased the way our squad depth was seen with Tom Muggeridge’s performance at hooker and 18 year old Luke Carter’s 20 minute display late in the game. Regarding his own kicking Nowak was satisfied and is clearly at the top of his form.
Finally he said, “There will be tougher games this season. The win made it 5 out of 5 this year and we are now looking forward with confidence to the remaining matches.”

*** Courtesy of Bracknell Times