Blosse leads Bracknell fight-back

Blosse leads Bracknell fight-back

Bracknell RFC Colts 32 v Marlow RFC Colts 12

Bracknell Colts notched their third straight bonus-point win in the race for the OBB Division One title with a five-try mauling of Marlow in a match that severely tested the character of a squad which is fast emerging as one of the best in the South East.
For all that though, the Bucks outfit were still clinging to a 10-12 lead with an hour played and were only undone by a devastating three-try spell in the final 10 minutes. It felt like a dam bursting after Bracknell’s pack had piled on the second-half pressure.
DHL Academy Coach Martin Radford said: “We knew the boys had the skills and the fitness but today they showed the mental strength to pick themselves up after going 12-0 down. I knew that we could win once they sorted out some of the first-half problems of slow ball, ripped ball, and turnovers at the breakdown through half-hearted rucking.”
Marlow had done all that could be expected of them early on. They rucked hard and were quick to use that turnover ball to attack out wide where full-back Hayden Parks was a potent threat. It was Parks who opened the scoring after just four minutes as Bracknell centre Dan Ryding had his pocket picked and Marlow’s Josh Thompson came up with the ball. Parks still had 80 yards to cover but his speed and some chaotic Bracknell non-tackling helped him home.
It was Parks who broke once more for Marlow up the left flank after a midfield scrum on 23 minutes. This time he had the vision to feed No 8 Jonny Lei for the visitors’ second try, converted by Thompson for 12-0. Bracknell were dominating every area but the breakdown but that was killing them as, time after time, James Wright, Dan Gyles, Chris Preston and Jack Williams ploughed into Marlow making hard yards only to see the ball turned over or the release too slow.
Josh Lane was able to claw back a try in the right-hand corner after 31 minutes thanks to Bracknell’s quicker recycling of the ball and the fast hands of Ben Thomas but it was not until Radford rang the changes on 40 minutes and Cameron Boret went to scrum-half with George Odell falling in at No 10 that Bracknell began to ask serious questions of Marlow.
Boret’s magnificent blind-side break off a scrum 30 metres out underlined the wisdom of the change. The good-natured half back had almost taken his father (and touch judge) Graham off at the knees during one first-half fracas and showed the same snarling aggression on 45 minutes to battle his way through tacklers to the line, where Preston decided to flop down on top of him - as though he had not suffered enough.
Full-back Ben Blosse missed the conversion that would have leveled it but Bracknell finally took the lead 15 minutes later as the pressure on Marlow’s line became unbearable. Thomas stole a ball on the ground he had no right to get, then Oli Nixon rampaged to the line before off-loading to back-row substitute Chris Griffiths to score on the hour.
Blosse converted for 17-12 then scored a brilliant try himself three minutes later. His kick from defence had the usual NASA trajectory, but good back-up running, a kind bounce, and some brilliant handling/juggling took the Lanky One clear of two defenders and clear to the posts. As Blosse converted for 24-12 Marlow heads dropped for the first time.
Their woes deepened minutes later as a flanker was spotted mistreating Odell on the floor and had to march under the shadow of yellow. Blosse sank the resultant penalty and Bracknell turned the screw as man-of-the-match Boret broke again up the blindside. His chip took Marlow into the corner of their 22 and they never really broke out again.
Hooker Luke Evans thought he’d scored, then back-row Russell Jackman thought he’d got over in the corner, then Gyles felt he had grounded but was held up. Marlow finally secured a penalty but Thompson ran it from his own 22, the plot now being comprehensively lost. His pass was intercepted by Ryding and the turnover found its way to left-wing Nathan Mannering who finished with real class to complete Bracknell’s resurrection. David Ryan

SCORERS: Parks (try) 0-5, 4min; Lei (try) 0-10, 23min; Thompson (con) 0-12, 23min; Lane (try) 5-12, 31min; Boret (try) 10-12, 45min; Griffiths (try) 15-12, 60min; Blosse (con) 17-12, 61min; Blosse (try) 22-12, 63min; Blosse (con) 24-12, 63min; Blosse (pen) 27-12, 69min; Mannering (try) 32-12, 70+2min.