Chippenham U18 10 - 12 Bracknell U18 Academy

With a bye through to round 2 of the U18 National Colts Cup Bracknell arrived at Chippenham confident of progressing further after two solid performances in recent weeks.

With a number of key players unavailable, there was a rich vain of U17's in the starting line-up, including the entire front 5, but the squad retained a solid and competent look about it without some of the extra bulk and experience brought by the missing U18's.

The one thing you hope when young players cross the whitewash, is that they continually learn from the experience, positive or negative, and use that experience to good effect in the future. There was no doubt that this transpired to be a testing day for the players, and I'm sure they will have taken a lot from it. Unforced errors, poor decision making/game management and a very 'visible' referee created a half with little or no continuity. Both teams suffered in the same way, and it was clear that the team that settled and started to put some phases together would win the day.

Dan Ap Dafydd, the Bracknell head coach has asked for multi-phased rugby, but in the 1st half, Bracknell managed to put together 3 phases just the once, which ultimately allowed Chippenham to stay in the game.

Beyond the errors and the high penalty count, the 1st half contained a great deal of positives. Dominance at the scrum, solid line outs, well organised & committed defence in the red zone, and some thrilling broken field running. But the lack of continuity, and Bracknell's failure to exploit simple 2 on 1's meant there were no scores until the 27th minute.

An attacking line out on the left gave Bracknell the opportunity to drive play in to the Chippenham 10/12 channel, and create a platform for quick ball, which was duly delivered. The ball moved right, but again an overlap was ignored. A pass of sorts pass was eventually given, but to ground, and the opportunity appeared to have been lost. As is sometimes the case, a loose bouncing ball can 'flat foot' a defence, Bracknell's outside backs reacted quickest and fly-hacked the ball through, and Callum Baker won the race to dot the ball down for the first score. The conversion was missed. The 1st half finished with Bracknell in the ascendency, and leading 0 - 5.

Bracknell's currently has a very strong squad at U18's, and this was evident with the options available on the bench. Dan reminded the players in his half time talk what was expected in terms of game plan, and made a few changes to the side.

The initial period of the half, was business as usual with the good, the bad and the ugly all on show, but Bracknell began to show signs of stringing some phases together, and the broken field running of Elliot Maddison and Patrick Fitzgerald had started to trouble the Chippenham defence.

However, perhaps against the run of play, Chippenham were awarded a kickable penalty in the 50th minute which was duly converted.

Almost immediately after the restart, another Fitzgerald break made ground, and gave Bracknell an attacking position, moving the ball wide, winger Tom Crawshaw had a lot to do, with little space to do it in. His hard running along the touchline gave him the chance to break the desperate half tackle in the left hand corner to score a well constructed and expertly finished try. This was clearly going to be a tight game, so all the points on offer needed to be taken, and Oli Radford kept his head down and converted a difficult kick from the left hand touchline. Bracknell led 3 - 12 after 52 minutes.

Bracknell were now totally in charge, and would have extended their lead had a perfectly good try been allowed when Elliot Maddison, now in the back three, broke out from 60 meters, beat multiple defenders and grounded the ball, at least twice, when tackled over the line. However, the referee felt it was held-up, and the boys quite rightly and very pleasingly accepted that decision and got on with the game. Good to see, that the lads understand that the referee's decision is final.

Had it stood this score would have ended any thoughts of a come back from a competent Chippenham team, who perhaps hadn't managed to 'hit their straps'.

As the game drew to a close, a series of 4 penalties drove Chippenham up field and gave them the opportunity to close the gap, which was duly taken, and the converted try brought the score to a nerve gangling 10 - 12.

Bracknell managed to shut the game down, without to many dramas and recorded a close victory to progress to round 3 of the U18 National Colts Cup.

This is a good side in the making, and strong squad with lots of depth. So what did the lads learn from this experience?
Firstly, that you focus on what you can influence. The penalty count was high in the first half, and the lads learnt where the corrections needed to be made to avoid infringing in the same way.
Secondly, working hard to manage the error count, which was again high in the first half, but less so in the second, and I'm sure this work will continue at training.
Thirdly, they understand they have the ability to keep cool heads, when it's not necessarily going your way with unforced errors and a high penalty count against you, it's always good sign of character when you can win ugly.

So well done lads on a competitive win.

GO BRFC!