Bracknell 34 – 27 Barnstaple

After a pulsating game in Cardiff on Friday evening which proved to be a fantastic opening to the 6 Nations Championship there were a few uneasy moments at Lily Hill Park on Saturday when it looked as if “unlikely away wins” was going to be the recurring theme of the weekend.

Barnstaple, who just before Christmas had won just 3 matches out of 12 and were very much in the relegation mix now find themselves in 8th place, have opened a gap between them and the side in 9th and if anyone in the bottom half of the league can feel “safe” it’s them. They could have been more comfortable still if Bracknell hadn’t managed to put together just a few respectable periods of play throughout this game.

Barnstaple scored the opening try and outscored Bracknell by 4 tries to 3 and for a side such a long way from home they gave Bracknell a scare the home side may not have been anticipating.
Having said all this, Bracknell was the better side and after the set-back of an early try they slowly but surely opened up a healthy 25 – 10 lead. Bracknell’s opening try, a lesser spotted long range achievement from 2nd row Kenny Barry can only be described as starting from “somewhere outside the 5 metre line”. Kenny’s own recollection is that it was just inside the 22 but we eventually settled on 7 metres.

When another well worked move down their right touch line by the visitors resulted in a 2nd try Bracknell seemed to get the message that the game would not be handed to them on a plate.
Bracknell pressure lead to two Owain Davies penalties to add to his conversion of Kenny Barry Jnr’s try. He then slotted another conversion to cap George Milligan’s great individual try that started from a tap penalty close to the half way line. Just 2 minutes later Michael Clarke broke off the back of a scrum on the half way line and beat the first couple of defenders. Realising just how far there was to go he wisely popped the ball to Stuart MacKay who raced to the corner to score.
32 minutes gone and a 4 try, 5 point win looked inevitable with the score at 25 – 10.

If you take the visitor’s early try into account as being the first – we now enter the second period of the game where Bracknell went “walkabout”. Owain Davies missed the conversion of Stuart Mackay’s try – the first miss out of 5 so there are no fingers pointed at him but following poor communication down the line from the re-start Ian Burch kicked the ball into touch thinking the first half was all over when it wasn’t. Finding themselves in their own half unnecessarily Bracknell tried to run themselves out of trouble and conceded a soft interception try under the posts from where the replacement kicker made sure of the conversion – enough said. Even though Bracknell thought the half was over they still found time to concede yet another score – a penalty – to take the half time score to a less than convincing 25 – 20.

To be fair to the home side, there were a few more disappointing moments in the second half but they never really looked like losing this game. 2 more penalties from Owain Davies extended their lead to 31 – 20 with 20 minutes to go and Bracknell were in control. As they battled for the 4th try however, they conceded yet another soft try (Barnstaple’s 4th) – this time to a length of the field breakout. It was well taken by Barnstaple but also well against the run of play. The score-line narrowed to 31 – 27 but there were no real opportunities for the visitors to win the game. A further penalty from Owain Davies was the last score of the game and his 7 successful kicks from 9 proved to be the difference between the sides despite the visitors 4 tries.

It was a bit of a lack-lustre performance from Bracknell but they maintain a very decent record of having lost just once at home this season which puts them up there with the very best in the league.

Final score Bracknell 34 – Barnstaple 27 (Bracknell 4 points – Barnstaple 2 points)

Bracknell – Matt Brambley, Stuart Silvester, Jonny Mirza, Kenny Barry, Ollie Taylor, Giuseppe Salustri, George Milligan (C), Michael Clarke, Daniel ap Dafydd, Rob Smart, George Owen, Chris Brember, Stuart Mackay, Ian Burch, Owain Davies. Subs: Leo Bailey, Pete Austin, Ben Nowak

Pete’s Predictions

Promotion candidates. How Redingensians can put 34 unanswered points on Hornets one week and then lose at what has until today been a rather out of form Newton Abbot the next I can’t say but I bet it will raise a few doubts at the top. Exmouth will be kicking themselves for their poor show at Bournemouth early this year but their win at Hornets this week means that it is likely to be a two horse race. It could well go down to the penultimate game of the season – or depending on the result – right down to the wire!

An update on last week’s question about point’s difference. It seems that in National 3 South West, if the league point’s tally of two sides is the same the amount of wins takes precedent over point’s difference. I’m told from a reliable source however, that this is not the case in all other leagues so there is some debate amongst those wise men that make the big decisions. As we all know wins, draws, 4 tries and a 7 point or less losing margin are all rewarded accordingly – and in my opinion the balance is reasonably fair. The next defining measure should be points scored for and against over the entire season taking all performances – home/away/ winning/losing/good days/bad days – all into account. Surely there can be no better measure of a side’s performance in the long term? What we have as things stand with wins taking precedent over point’s difference means that we are counting yet again a measure that has already been counted – and ignoring another measure that is probably a better all round indicator of performance. I think this may not be the last on this particular issue…..

Win of the week. As I said only last week - Newton Abbot’s form has been poor in recent weeks with just one win from five and that by just a single point against struggling W-s-M. Well, who’d have thought they had it in them to bring the mighty Redingensians down to earth?
Clear winners of “win of the week” are Newton Abbot. May your current good home last for several weeks and then come to an abrupt end just before Bracknell come to visit

Relegation worries. Due to what I assume were weather related postponements only 2 sides in the bottom 7 actually took to the field this weekend but W-s-M and Oxford Quins were unable to muster any league points between them so there is no let-up from the spectre of relegation for them

Next week’s fixtures There are a couple of catch up fixtures next weekend with a full fixture card again the week after. Even though every game is important to those in the relegation battle and the promotion race I can’t see that there are any “do or die” fixtures involved
Bracknell are back on the road on 21st February to face a Bournemouth side who have not lost at home since the beginning of November. Having taken the recent scalp of Exmouth they may fancy their chances of avenging their rather hefty defeat at the hands of Bracknell earlier in the season.

It’s a rest weekend in the 6 Nations Championship so get your rugby fix by getting behind the Bracknell boys at Bournemouth.

GO BRFC!