Sharp Bracknell cut Barnet short

Sharp Bracknell cut Barnet short

Barnet Elizabethans RFC U19s 0 Bracknell RFC U19s 36

Bracknell’s DHL Academy coach, Martin Radford, used this non-league road trip for squad rotation and still left the plucky but out-gunned Elizabethans in a bit of a spin.
Only five players were on show from the side that pulled off last week’s impressive five-try league win at Redingensians, but Bracknell Colts still cruised this one, scoring another five tries in the process, four of them from a hungry, if not always lean, pack of forwards.
Radford’s hardest task may be to keep everybody happy, especially in the pack where there are now around 20 highly capable candidates for the five loose-forward positions. Those rested, and injured, will be taking note of strong performances from Dan Ryding, Russell Jackman, Chris Griffiths, Geraint Davies, Chris Preston and man-of-the-match debutant Jack Williams. Callum Watson, Arthur Bowden, Dan Gyles and Karl Findlay all produced hard-working cameos.
They are all inter-changeable and all as a mean as a junk-yard dog.
Competition for places in the three-quarters has also got hotter with scrum-half David Gaynor taking five out of six kicks, for 11 points on the day, while Josh Lane showed real fire at outside centre and Connor Sawdon, another player on his Bracknell debut, was solid at No 10 and made some dangerous breaks as Elizabethans tired in the second half.
“There was a lot of good rugby and good combinations from a group that have not played that much together,” said Radford. “Our defending was solid and our decision making improved, particularly in the second-half. We need to work on structuring our game better, but it was a highly pleasing outing which threw up some eye-catching displays. Team selection for next week [Reading at home] will not be easy.”
Not surprisingly, Bracknell did make a stuttering start. Even though Elizabethans were penned back in their 22 for most of the first quarter, all Bracknell had to show was an eighth-minute penalty from Gaynor. Loose lineouts and rash penalties were to blame.
The only bright spot for Barnet was that their smaller, lighter pack consistently out-shoved Bracknell in the first half. But crisp tackling from Sawdon, Ryding and Lane in midfield denied the home side’s backs any time or space. Even so, Elizabethans’ full-back, Matt Harris, could have leveled it on 21 minutes, with a 40-yard penalty for offside. The wind caught his kick and that was almost the last scoring opportunity the home side were to get.
Three minutes later, Williams made the first of several decisive breaks as a mixture of quick, clean ruck-ball and clever off-loading in contact saw Bracknell ease clear. First, Josh Lane went over in the corner with Gaynor converting for 10-0 on 24 minutes; then Lane broke again and was only stopped by a high tackle five metres out before Jackman, playing the advantage, picked up and dived over a ruck to ground on 33 minutes, Gaynor again converted for a 17-0 half-time lead.
Bracknell had the wind and slope against them after the break but made light of that by again bottling Barnet up in their own 22 with a 10-minute passage of maul-break-penalty-lineout-maul-break play. Barnet’s exhausted tacklers were blowing hard when front-row Dave Staunton eventually crossed at the posts on 47 minutes. Gaynor converted for 24-0.
That was the day’s killer try. It was followed, 10 minutes later, by the day’s best try as “lightning” front-row Chris ‘Blob’ Preston found space 40 metres out. His outrageous show-and-go, followed by a side-step and explosive burst, took him to the posts as Barnet tacklers seemed to be looking for good reasons not to make the hit.
The final try was perhaps the most deserved as Williams, who moved from lock to No 8 in the second half, went over in the right corner on the hour to bring up 36-0.
Barnet Colts’ coach Dave Martin praised Bracknell’s pack. “They’re very strong, powerful boys. We held on for almost 25 minutes and hoped that, at 17-0 down but with the wind and slope in our favour, we might peg them back after the break. But we gave them too many silly penalties. I think 36-0 was harsh, 24-0 would have been fair.”

By David Ryan

SCORERS: Gaynor (pen) 0-3, 8min; Lane (try) 0-8, 24min; Gaynor (con) 0-10, 24min; Jackman (try) 0-15, 33min; Gaynor (con) 0-17, 33min; Staunton (try) 0-22, 47min; Gaynor (con) 0-24, 48min; Preston (try) 0-29, 57min; Gaynor (con) 0-31, 57min; Williams (try) 0-36, 60min.