Bracknell U14s v Newbury U14s

Well we all expected it to be cancelled, and pitch 3 failed an early inspection, but pitch 1 survived allowing us to tackle our first major challenge of the season – hosting Newbury. Last year we visited them and were soundly beaten by their 14 players (13 + the ref), so this time following early defeats of Farnborough and Chobham, hopes were high.

The rain was drenching, but pitch 1 looked great and we had experienced ref Clive Field in charge, so we fancied our chances.

The first third was full on A vs A, and both teams threw everything into it. We defended superbly and had a few chances of our own which we couldn’t quite take, but the competition was very close. Newbury unlocked us eventually with a superb cross field kick from their fly half on the right to score from the left wing, and their beast of a no.8 broke through the middle at the end of the third to go in 14-0 up at the break.

Second third we were playing downhill, and seemingly upped our effort, looking more dangerous. We worked out how to keep the no.8 quiet and ground our way towards their line. They infringed just inside their 22, and backchat from Newbury gave us another 10 yards, and a quick tap and go allowed a pile of Bracknell bodies to score under the post with Stefano (I think??) touching down. Then shortly after the restart, Matteo collected the ball on the right wing inside our own half and he ran back cross field (I commented “back into trouble, wrong choice”) and somehow through the whole Newbury team to score from the left wing. Louis “deadly off the tee” Woodbridge converted both putting us back to 14-14, game on! Then, with the whistle beckoning we switched off for a second and the no.8 beast charged through the middle of our team and we flapped rather than tackled allowing him to score under the posts to go 21-14 in front. The positive was we won that third 14-7 and really matched Newbury in all aspects.

The final third gave our development players a full run out against Newbury who still had several A players on the park, and we produced a fantastic performance, huge amounts of effort from everyone involved. Newbury scored two breakaway tries one down each wing, but it was the last 10 minutes that we need to remember. We had constant pressure, camped in their half, and suddenly the noise from the team mates in the stands was booming round the ground. The development team responded and kept threatening the line, and time and time again were held up just short. At the final whistle Newbury cheered with relief, because they knew how hard they had to work to keep us out. Final score 33-14 to Newbury, and also worth noting that the two fly halves converted 6 of the 7 tries, showing some quality kicking in spite of the rain and wind.

So a great morning’s rugby in tough conditions against a top Berkshire team – last season Maidenhead, Redingensians and Newbury were way ahead of us – and it showed how far we have progressed already this season. We should also remember that we were missing some serious firepower – Scott, Thomas, Sergio, Nikita, Louis B, Ruben, Zak and Casey amongst 10+ players who were unavailable or ill on the day. And on top of that our new recruits were all immense, with Liam in particular catching the eye of the ref with the power of his tackling.
Great work by everyone, and rock on Windsor next weekend.

by Phil Wells