Bracknell Stags 62 - Readingensians 10

Well what a difference a week makes. Yes the previous weeks opponents (Winchester) were of a slightly higher quality but that should not take anything away from what was an emphatic (not a word I use often being a Welshman) victory over local rivals Readingensians on Saturday at a very busy Lily Hill Park.

For me as Coach, the most pleasing aspect of this win was not necessarily the 9 tries scored, although some of them were top drawer and were appreciated by the supporters (and the ref even said one of them in particular he enjoyed!)..No the most pleasing aspect was the way that a team with a number of youngsters and some of the old guard blended and trusted each other throughout the whole game. Everyone to a man trusted their patterns and trusted that each other knew their roles and responsibility and would do there job, and so they all did.

Bracknell started up the hill and got into the game from the off and dictated the tempo and patterns for the first 15 minutes where Engians hardly touched the ball. This resulted in an early penalty followed quickly by a converted try and an early 10 -0 lead and it looked as though Bracknell would push on. The only disappointing item, though few, was that complacency suddenly kicked in and Bracknell decided running first phase without earning the right to go wide suddenly allowed engians to get back onto the game, engians never give up and they very quickly brought themselves back into contention with a dubious but well work try non the less and with that try and late penalty they managed to equal the scores 10-10, however Bracknell were not finished and with new club signing Vasa Bai determined to use his unbelievable foot work and obvious experience at 7’S to bamboozle the engians defense, bracknell and in particular Vasa hit back with a late first half try to go into the half time brake 17:10 up.

The half time talk comprised of reminding the players how effective we were in the first 15 minutes of the game and that if we reverted back to our patterns and to supporting the ball carrier that we will break the spirit of the engians side, and true to form we started the second half as we did the first but this time we continued that pressure throughout.

Some great ball carrying from all of the pack but in particular Nick Ovens, Nathan Crow, Ryan Noakes and Rob Clarke made huge inroads into the engians defense and add to that the darting runs of the irish imp that is Barry Dwyer and the great distribution skills of Dan Rap Dog at 10 to put killer runners like Vasa Bai and Ben Yates into space and well there you can see where the rest of the tries came from…..not all though…we have to mention probably the most popular try of the day ….and that was the 2 yard dash from Stags stalwart David Abbott.

So in conclusion, the standard and the performance bar has been set and we have to ensure that we do not drop below that level and try to improve from there, there are a number of players putting their hands up for selection in the squad above and that is the sort of issue that myself, Rory and Sly want in the selection meetings. It was a great to see all of the lads playing like that and it can only mean good things for the season because trust me the way we played on Saturday we will be very hard to beat!!!

MOM: Nick Ovens: Scrummed with power and focus, carried like a back rower and seemed to be all over the park.

Happy Coach!

Paul Hancock