Canterbury Shield - Division 3

Canterbury Shield - Division 3
Bournemouth 2nds 3 v Bracknell 2nds 43

Bracknell maintains their 3rd place position in the league with this comprehensive victory over Bournemouth. After Manager Greg Anstead said that,”This is the best performance of the season. Our defence was tremendous and I have nothing but praise for my players. Week after week they have demonstrated to me their ability to learn and the improvement is showing. I keep going on about my young players but they deserve mention, as do the senior players who are leading from the front.”

One player missing was prop Matt Turner who was injured in the warm up this led to uncontested scrums which probably saved the Bournemouth forwards from being overrun by a Bracknell pack that on paper had more pushing power than many first teams.

Nevertheless it also worked in Bracknell’s favour as they had a superior set of backs that sliced through the laboured home team defensive line. On his début game the Barbados International winger Antonio Gibbons, who with Greg & Matt Anstead played in the 2007 World cup qualifiers against Canada and the USA, soon showed his international form by searing past defenders and scored two tries.

An indication of Bracknell’s defensive strength was they was the way kept the home team down to just 3 points and the quality of the attacking play is demonstrated by the fact that until this match where Bracknell scored 43 points, Bournemouth had only conceded 97 points in 8 games this season.

Man of the match for Bracknell was the ever reliable Alan Leishman who, on numerous occasions set up tries by carrying the ball deep into the Bournemouth territory.

In addition to Gibbons, the try scorers for Bracknell were – Luke Carter, Alan Leishman, Graham
Sparks, Ollie Jordan and Andy Byett.

Next week Bracknell are again away, this time it is to Haywards Heath. Being away has had little effect on Bracknell’s results as they have won 6 of the 7 away matches they have played.

*** Report courtesy of the Bracknell Times