Bracknell emerge from the fog in credit

Starting slowly as the thick fog lifted away from Reading RFC, and kicking off rather sleepily against our League rivals from Hungerford, the boys improved against a strong Abingdon side before winning their final two games against a Teddington/Slough combination team and finally against a robust Marlow B team against whom they had done battle across 50 mins just the previous week.

The format of the well-organised festival was four 15 min games, with no conversions, due to the limited time available.

Bracknell 0-10 Hungerford
A well deserved win for Hungerford who were simply better in all facets of the game. They were disruptive in the scrum, far more effective at the breakdown, and extremely aggressive and quick in defence, meaning that Bracknell had no quick or clean ball, and virtually no forward momentum. Against this, Bracknell were a little slovenly in defence allowing Hungerford to score two good tries, for a 10-0 win which rather reflected the balance of the short game. Not dis-similar in fact, to the first 15 mins of our last league encounter, where they raced into a two try league. This time however, there was no time for Bracknell to fight back. At least, not within the confines of this single match up.

Bracknell 5-10 Abingdon
Our second game saw the boys take on the big Abingdon team who had previously thumped the Teddington/Slough combination team, and initially Bracknell put up an effective fight, but conceded two tries again from the strong running Oxfordshire outfit. However, this time the Bracknell boys were far more energised at the breakdown, and with a combination of quick ball from the forwards and slightly less line speed from the Abingdon three-quarters, it allowed the backs to generate some momentum. This in turn spurred the forwards on, and with some cracking drives from Sam, Seth, Ed, Alfie and others, we suddenly clicked into gear and had Abingdon on the back foot. Only a knock on metres from the line, prevented the boys from pulling a try back after the forwards had driven on from halfway. The pressure however was maintained, and after stretching the defenders both ways, more quick ball enabled Josh to release Tim down the short side of a ruck, and to score to in the corner. The boys were now energised, and Abingdon had their backs to the wall but try as they may the equalising score wouldn’t come, and in the end Abingdon were quite happy to boot the ball off the park and bring the game to a close.

Bracknell 15-0 Teddington/Slough BaaBaas
Abingdon looked like being the toughest opponents so having performed so well after going two scores down, the boys were full of confidence going into the match up with the combined team of Teddington and Slough. Bouyed by the quick ball generated by the forwards in the previous game, the backs were keen to play on the front foot, and after initial drives by the forwards through Alex, Max, Jonty and Daniel, they immediately spread the ball right where Joe sucked in the cover defence leaving Oscar with a two on one, and he subsequently sent in Tim for the first try with barely a minute on the clock. The second try came almost straight away with Theo embarking on one of his trademark runs past several would-be tacklers before dotting down between the posts. No conversions of course, but a top habit to get into! The third try was notable for it being Oakley’s first for the club, which after all of his defensive work, was richly deserved. A good break by Charlie in midfield got the defence onto the back foot. More quick ball from the tireless forwards set it up for Josh, to Joe, and a long miss pass found Oakley who brushed off a couple of defenders to score in the corner. At 3 tries down the opp energised themselves and stormed back into the game but the Bracknell defence held very firm, and in a shortened game, the 15-0 scoreline was richly deserved.

Bracknell 10-5 Marlow
Marlow had attended the Festival with a trim squad managing games in the A and C sections, so we waited for the A team to finish before the players joined us for the last game. The game was notable for two very good Bracknell tries, considerable passion on both sides, immense defence and ultimately a rather oddly shortened game in which the ref forgot to add on the time spent on a lengthy injury. Bracknell opened the scoring, again in the first minute, as the switched kick-off was fumbled by Marlow leading to a scrum. No8 Fraser picked up from the base and brushed off the not inconsiderable attempts to tackle him, and raced in from some 30m out. Immediately Marlow stormed back and earned an equalising try. Several minutes without a try then elapsed until there was a lengthy stoppage for an injury, which also resulted in a Bracknell penalty in the centre of the pitch. The tap was fed to our rampaging Fraser, who crashed into the Marlow defence with his forward buddies hot on his heels, as the ball came out, Josh and Joe went to the left and in an almost mirror image of Oakley’s try in the first game, he did it again but with perhaps less defenders to beat as his team-mates had them stretched so thin. The remainder of the game saw Marlow throw everything at the Bracknell defence, with some fearsome runners meeting some muscular defence. The defence by the whole team was quite outstanding although mention should be made of Oakley being typically un-passable, and Fraser charging around, tackling anyone who carried the ball in the direction of the Bracknell line.

All in all, a successful morning’s work after a very sluggish start – perhaps the 09.30 KO was too early for some (most) of the boys – across the games, coming back from 4 tries down, to 6 tries to 5 in credit, and ending on a real high, with a cracking (although shortened game) against our regular adversaries from Marlow.