South West One

South West One
Bracknell 48 v Barnstaple 6
By Henry La

Match photos at http://www.solidphotos.com/main.php?g2_itemId=16722

Bracknell players were under no illusions that it was essential for them to beat Barnstaple but they must also do it with style if they were to have any hopes of success this season. Player/Coach Sheasby did his part by giving his team a scorching assessment of their performance at Weston plus he rang the changes by dropping two players and included himself in the starting line up.

The game was played in terrible conditions with torrential rain and a cool breeze blowing across the pitch. This didn’t stop both teams from passing the ball and turning the match into a thrilling display of open rugby but Bracknell’s better class enabling them to run out comfortable winners over their Devon opponents by a 48-6.

When asked how he had managed to turn around the team’s performance after the dire display last week, Sheasby said firmly that, “There was nothing to turn around! I’ve learnt here at Bracknell that we save up our bad performances for one particular match. This has a habit of coming after a run of eight or nine good ones. Last season it was Chinnor where, one person had a nightmare with 5 others playing badly, the same happened last week at Weston. What I need to do is prepare to prevent the sequence repeating itself again but in doing this I’ll continue to show loyalty to players and will not take knee jerk decisions.

Concerning the Weston game, he said, “It is frightening that even with our poor play we should still have won that match. The difference was that they were prepared to roll up their sleeves and get on with winning in a workman like way.”

When asked about the concern showed by supporters that Bracknell doesn’t have a strong visible leader in the pack area. Clearly Sheasby is not a fan of this style of leadership because he replied,” I want a Martin Johnson type of leader who does it by example. Being the Coach I’ll do any talking necessary.”

Looking at the accusation that his team has failed to be consistent so far this season he said, “In four halves of rugby, we have accumulated over 100 points. That is good rugby and it is therefore a nice problem for me to get them to extend this type of performance out to a full 80 minutes. I felt we achieved that today and we again demonstrated our defensive superiority. In fact, we are the first to keep Barnstaple below a score of 10 points this season.”

Regarding the quality of attacking play, he said,” Today we amassed 48 points, especially in the wet weather we played some super back play then at the right time, turned on the power play – as we did with our push over try.”

Kicking off up the slope, Bracknell soon soothed the nerves of their supporters when on 4 minutes winger Nick Shears finished off an excellent three quarter move down the left to score the first of his three tries. Skipper Ben Nowak missed the difficult conversion kick but made up for it 3 minutes later with a penalty pushing Bracknell into an 8-0 led.

Barnstaple fought back with two Luke Berry penalties but missed the most glaring try opportunity of the season when with a four man overlap they took the option to go for the line but credit must go to the Bracknell defence for frustrating the opposition into taking chances. With the score at 8-6 Bracknell had to knuckle down and fight to stop the tide of Barnstaple attacks.

This was a difficult period as the home team again showed a discipline problem giving away 11 penalties in the first half also Referee Mr Bob McCrudden was unhappy with their delayed line out as others have been in previous matches. Despite looking sluggish in retreat they weathered this particular storm and settle their nerves on 36 minutes when the increasingly influential young prop Jonny Mirza, finished off a move that had twice seen the ball passed across the pitch then ending up in the left corner. Nowak hit the most difficult of conversions and Bracknell went into half time leading by 15-6 but realistically straight from the restart, this should have been 15-9 had Berry not missed a simple penalty from in front of the posts.

If Bracknell were somewhat lucky to have had the half time cushion of the 9 points any fears by the supporters were quickly dispelled from the second kick off as in the driving rain they took the game to Barnstaple by playing open rugby with tremendous ball handling. But it was also necessary to have the muscle to take on the visitors physically and in the giant forwards Kenny Barry and Andrio Van Zyl they have two practitioners of body thumping rugby as they smashed their way forward.

It wasn’t long before fly half Jervis Manupenu started to weave his way into the Barnstaple defensive line, along with Rudal Aionio, Ben Nowak and Joe Shelton on his shoulder, the gaps started to appear. First after 42 minutes Shears scored his second try in the corner again Nowak hit a fantastic conversion to push the score out to 20-6.

Now without a running game Barnstaple were forced to resort to high kicks into the Bracknell half. Where at Weston had caused major problems for full back David Budge, this week he was faultless and turned the catches into opportunities to weave through the visitors line.

Sheasby kept his team focussed and in the 50th minute after Barnstable prevented Bracknell scoring from two close efforts on the line the ball went loose. Scrum half Daniel Ap Dafydd, whose all round play has improved this season snapped it up diving over to score his forth try in four matches.

Within 10 minutes Shears finished off another sweeping move by scoring his hat trick with a sliding dive over the line to avoid the defence. Nowak missed this one but he was soon again on target in converting two further tries, one by Van Zyl after 65 minutes and another 7 minutes later though Kyle Blankley who, along with a number of his colleagues, had a great match following the difficult one at Weston as they ran out worthy winners with a 48-6 victory.

After Ben Nowak said,” Last week we had a good team chat and talked to individuals about their performance at Weston but I still feel that one game doesn’t make you bad. We still believe we can finish as Championship contenders and a result like this sends a confident message, that we mean business, out to ourselves, our supporters and other teams. Regarding Coney Hill Nowak said, “It’s never going to be an easy down there, we expect a tough game but have the self confidence to win.

Graham Sparks, one of the injured flankers said “It is a good win and prepares us for the tough match next week against Coney Hill. I was especially impressed with our second half performance where we showed the desire to up our game by using quicker ball and excellent finishing.”

This was clearly a better weekend for Bracknell. They played as a team, showed a determination and drive not seen so far this season, as everyone lifted their game. But they must not become complacent as there are areas to improve so; the Coney Hill match next weekend will be a good opportunity to show that ‘Class is Permanent’.

**** Report Courtesy of Bracknell Times