Finally a game of Rugby! Rather than snowball fights

By Tony Kilos
After weeks of weather enforced inactivity all were hoping this fixture would go ahead before the overdue league campaign. Despite the heavy pitch, conditions were almost perfect and the indoor training of recent weeks was put to good stead as both matches showed the squad was not as rusty as may have been expected.

B Game
Amersham and Chiltern 5 Bracknell 10

This was an entertaining and combative match contested by two evenly matched sides as the score line suggests. Bracknell had several chances to score before the home side went ahead. On quite a few occasions a Bracknell drive was curtailed by the forwards not getting down low enough to thwart the counter drive. Just before Amersham scored, Miles, alert to the home sides line out throws, ran down the blindside to kick through, just missing the chance to score, the home side touching down with inches to spare. Tom Butler was all over the pitch making some fine takes with the ball down by his knees from passes and kicks from the opposition. Despite this Amersham scored against the run of play, getting the ball down the wing and evading a couple of lunging tackles to score in the corner. This Bracknell team appears to be made of sterner stuff since the winter break and they replied right after half time. A scrum was won, the ball taken down the blindside; after a ruck wasformed quick wits saw Nat Miles touch down in the corner to level the scores. At this point the match could have gone either way, with both sides having chances to break free from the midfield rucks and mauls. A feature of the second half was Bracknell being penalized for feeding at the scrum, although it looked like the home side were doing this as well. Bracknell went into the lead when Alex Ferguson was set free on the wing by the backs to run in and score. A mazy run by the home side’s winger was stopped on the line the ball spilling out to be knocked on by Bracknell. The five metre scrum was won against the head and from the resulting confusion Miles emerged to kick ahead thirty metres and ease the pressure. The home side's desperation resulted in a tackle off the ball and the alert Archie Luckhurst checked with the referee before dispatching the penalty into touch.

Final score 10-5 to Bracknell.