Logic suggests that this should really have been an important toss to win. Not quite as important perhaps as winning the toss in the recent World T20 given that Australia played 6 games to clinch the title of “World Champions” – won the toss 5 times and won all 5 games – lost the toss just once and got absolutely thrashed - but putting that aside this still felt like an important toss to win.

With Storm Arwen hurling all she could muster almost straight down the pitch I think either side would have wanted to face whatever she and the opposition could throw at them in the first half and then settle down with Arwen at their backs and take full advantage of the elements and the slope in the second half.

So, with Marlborough winning the toss the question on the Bracknell touchline was “How many points is the wind worth?” How much of a lead did Bracknell have to build up to stand a chance of holding out against what looked very much like a well-trained army of fit an athletic pacific islanders. A 15 point half-time lead was muted, 20 perhaps – who indeed could say?

One of the less obvious advantages of playing into the elements – be it a slope or a stiff breeze – is that it is rare that anywhere near 50% of the “points scoring rugby” gets played in the first half of any match. Perhaps not so much in the likes of the Premiership but at “our” level teams are sizing up the opposition, testing them out, getting their passing range sorted out and generally working themselves into the game. Remember that when Bracknell played Windsor earlier in the year the half-time score was 0 – 0. What a waste it would have been if we had used up the advantage of the wind or the slope to end up at 0 – 0 at half time – given that we scored 34 unanswered points in the second 40 once we had hit our bootstraps (whatever they are). So having the benefit of the environmental factors in the first half isn’t a choice many sides would take and for a side like Bracknell – not exactly renowned for their quick starts – losing the toss was not ideal.

As you might expect the opening exchanges were in Marlborough territory and after 10 minutes Bracknell had a stroke of good fortune – or genius – one of the two. Alex Frame, with the 10 shirt on for the first time to accommodate Lewis Franklin at 9, chipped a ball over the top and while the Bracknell touchline “experts” were in the process of criticising the tactic the Marlborough full back fumbled his catch. Bracknell played the advantage and then forced a penalty from the slightly startled defence. A charge to the line after a quick tap was halted as a defender ripped the ball in the tackle – only for it to fly up into the air, get blown back over the try line and Ben Bathurst was on hand to touch it down. The attempt at the impossible – a touchline conversion - wasn’t to be so Bracknell went just 0 - 5 up.

No more than 5 minutes later however Marlborough hit back. A series of phases saw the home side make ground with pop passes off 9 to a range of eager ball carriers and finally a clever angled line of running saw the Marlborough loose head crash over. The conversion attempt into the teeth of the wind ended up closer to the 22 that it ever got to the posts. 5 – 5

On occasion rugby was almost impossible to play with passes that appeared to be heading to the next player down the line veering off randomly and not reaching their target and kicks were a lottery – mainly because the ball wouldn’t behave itself in the split second between leaving hand and connecting with boot. The referee did an admirable job of ignoring anything but the blatantly bent to at least allow the lineouts to function as a means of restarting the game, something that Bracknell couldn’t complain about given Marlborough’s dominance in the scrums.

With very few minutes remaining in the half Bracknell finally opened up a lead on the scoreboard – not that there was a scoreboard but it’s a figure of speech….or writing….whatever. After several Bracknell forwards had their attempts to cross the line thwarted Ken Hodgson finally forced his way over. This time the well struck conversion attempt ignored the wind and against all odds held it’s line like an arrow and sailed without deviation straight past the outside of the right hand post meaning that the half time score of 5 – 10 was rather too delicately poised for the liking of the travelling support.

As those who hadn’t yet succumbed to hyperthermia were to agree during the halftime debate – a lead a 5 points was unlikely to be enough. If any of us were betting men – or more to the point if any of us were willing to remove gloves and over trousers to access any form of cash we’d have bet on the home side at this stage – but fortunately no one was.

The second half got under way with a reminder to the home side that they wouldn’t necessarily have everything their way. The fly half barely managed to connect with his drop kick restart and when it didn’t reach the 10 metre line Bracknell opted for the scrum. Despite being under pressure they won their own ball and set off chipping away at opposition territory. As is always the way in these conditions multiple phases win hard fought ground only to have it cruelly stolen by a small error that allows a defensive punt to result in a 50 yard loss of ground and you start all over again.

Bracknell had learned lessons from the first half though. Passes needed to be sympathetic and accurate and there’s no point is standing too far apart. They had success working the right touchline and less than 10 minutes after the restart Jake Findlay (on for Danny Bourne who would be back in action for the last 10 minutes due to Bracknell injuries) tiptoed up the touchline for the opening score of the second half. Again unconverted, what was once a very slender lead was stretched to 10 points. 5 – 15.

There was precious little time to enjoy their lead before Bracknell came under pressure and relinquished most of it. With what appeared to be relatively little effort Marlborough reached the opposition line and Bracknell’s resolute defence did little more than to shift the somewhat inevitable score along the try line until it was right under the posts. The “simple” conversion was to be the one and only successful kick of the game and made it 12 – 15 with a full 30 minutes left to play.

Yet again, Bracknell supporters were fortunate that any betting money was well and truly buried under multiple layers of clothing because the spectre of a second loss in consecutive weeks looked like a distinct possibility

With temperatures close to 2 degrees and the crowd and a couple of players drifting in and out of consciousness the next 20 minutes saw a fairer share of territory and passed uneventfully – scoreboard wise at least – until Marlborough really ramped up the pressure in the last 10 minutes in search of that match winning score. Time after time they battered the Bracknell defence – time after time they were repelled. Countless times they were stopped within inches of the line – so many so that at one stage Bracknell’s only chance looked like they might be able to hold the opposition up over the line and hope that the final whistle blew. And it was something similar that brought the game to a close as Marlborough finally crossed the line and knocked on rather than touching down. The final whistle blew – the home side were in disbelief – the away side ecstatic.

And this is where we revisit the original question “How many points is the wind worth?” Well if it was just a wind it could well be something – 15 or 20 points perhaps – but when it’s more like a gale it’s a different story. The wind wasn’t just to one side’s advantage or the other’s, it was disruptive to both sides in all facets of the game from line outs to passing, catching high balls and even kicking from hand or ground irrespective of whether you were with it or against it. The gale certainly took away Marlborough’s option to kick a penalty when just two points behind in the dying minutes. They had opportunities to kick but chose to take a tap penalty every time.

The mathematical answer is that Bracknell scored 5 points more with the wind in their favour than against it while Marlborough scored just 2 points more in the second half with Arwen at their backs. So the answer to the question “How many points is the wind worth?” is ……..3.5 points on the evidence of this game. I don’t recall anyone coming up with that particular answer before the game but while I’m pretty confident that a “wind”, a “breeze” and even a “stiff breeze” at your back is worth several points, a howling gale is a different story.

None of my musings about the wind should detract from Bracknell’s performance though. Their defence against a pound for pound bigger opposition was magnificent. They believed in themselves and their fellow team mates and put their bodies on the line time and time again and were ultimately rewarded for their immense efforts.

Full time Marlborough 12 (1 point) Bracknell 15 (4 points)

Bracknell:- Ruairi Henderson, Bradley Walters, Jake Hodge, Nick Carroll, Sam Dunks, Joe Maybey,
Ben Bathurst, Ken Hodgson, Lewis Franklin, Alex Frame (cc), Ben Yates, Dan Walton, Dan Mays, Ian Burch (C), Danny Bournes. Replacements:- Nick Ovens, Tom Field, Jake Findlay (all played)

Bracknell have won 5 out of 5 on the road and still boast the meanest defence in the league by a long way. Today’s second half performance was testimony to this. They still have two teams left to play before the half way point of the season and both of these sides are in the top half of the table so there is still work to do in the promotion hunt. Next week’s visit to Lily Hill Park by Oxford Harlequins will be tough to be sure but the trip to Sherborne doesn’t look quite as ominous as it once did after their hiding at home from travelling Banbury. I wonder if Banbury won the toss. If I was a betting man I would wager that they did!

Photo courtesy of PGR Photography

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