Berkshire opened their National U20s Championship campaign with a big win over Buckinghamshire in front of a good crowd at Bracknell Rugby Club last Sunday. Played on a fast pitch in spring sunshine it was high quality, exciting and very entertaining rugby.

Bracknell RFC provided 10 of the Berkshire U20 squad, a tribute to the quality of coaching at the club and the ability of their players. Bracknell players scored 4 of Berkshire's 7 tries and kicked a further 9 points.

Berkshire started uphill to open the scoring with a try after 5 minutes from Andy Auld (Exeter University) with the ball moving through the backs to put him in at the corner. The conversion attempt from a difficult angle was narrowly missed by Matt Morris (Bracknell RFC). Buckinghamshire fought back but were unable to penetrate the Berkshire defence and their first chance of points came from a penalty in front of the posts 8 minutes into the game after a Berkshire infringement at the ruck. Neatly slotted by T. Smalley the scoreboard stood at 5 points to 3 in Berkshire’s favour.

Despite some early errors after Buckinghamshire’s penalty Berkshire soon settled into a solid build up towards a win. The next 25 minutes saw a hard fought battle by Berkshire with the forwards dominating the scrum and line out and the backs outplaying their Buckinghamshire counterparts. Patience was rewarded and at 33 minutes Berkshire had a lovely breakthrough and with a chip ahead it was collected and touched down for a try by Ollie Jordan (Bracknell RFC). Right under the posts this was easily converted by Matt Morris. As the halftime whistle approached Bucks gave away a penalty which was put between the posts by Matt Morris leaving Berkshire to go in to half time leading by 15 points to 3.

Berkshire came out from half time looking for an immediate try and it came 2 minutes into the second half. Berkshire steadily drove the ball down field from the kick off and Jamie Gregory (Bracknell RFC) took a pick and go to score in the corner. Again it was a difficult angle for a conversion and the ball went wide.

As 58 minutes approached Berkshire broke through and Matt Morris pulled the fullback and offloaded to Andy Auld for a beautifully worked try which Matt then converted. That seemed to open the floodgates and 4 minutes later Luke Carter (scrum half Bracknell RFC) floored a Bucks player behind the scrum just short of halfway, turned him over collected the ball, stepped and then showed his pace to beat 5 Bucks players to the line for a try. Mat Morris duly converted.

Buckinghamshire were beaten but far from giving up and managed a breakthrough up the right wing which was stopped with a superb tackle yards short of the line. Berkshire collected the ball and took play back down towards the Bucks try line. A rolling maul was collapsed by Bucks and Jamie Pincott (Cross Keys RFC and Glamorgan Uni) picked up the ball from the ruck and forced his way over the line in the corner for Berkshire’s 6th try (70mins).

Not to be left out Will Hopkins (Bracknell RFC) had a beautiful try from a slick backs play scoring under the posts to be converted by Will Clarke (Newbury RFC and Hartpury College). That was then end of the scoring and Berkshire went in with a well deserved victory of 46 points to 3.

Berkshire now look forwards to their next National U20s Championship match against Oxfordshire at Bracknell RFC in two weeks time on Sunday March 15th. Berkshire want as many Bracknell players and supporters along.

There were two awards of Berkshire Man of the Match with players voting for Will Hopkins (Bracknell RFC) who had an outstanding game at centre cutting holes in the Buckinghamshire line. Coaches voted for Matt Symonds (Phoenix RFC) who had a superb game at 2nd row and played a decisive part in Berkshire’s lineout domination.