Colts suffer defeat in local derby

The day was set fair for this re-arranged OBB 18 Div 1 league fixture, a game to be played on a surprisingly firm Lily Hill Park pitch. The home side missing a number of key forwards and unfamiliar combinations approached this fixture with confidence, looking to re-energise their season against what turned out to be a competent, competitive and determined Rams XV.

The Rams opened the scoring after 5 minutes with a well worked try from an attacking line out, peeling away from the back in to the Bracknell midfield the Rams charge towards the line was halted by an excellent tackle from Patrick Fitzgerald. But the Rams quickly had numbers to the breakdown and picked & drove over. The try was converted.

Bracknell had their moments, but these attacks invariably broke down due to a combination of determined Rams defence, unforced errors or poor decision making - overlaps ignored, aimless kicks ahead and lost ball in contact being the main deficiencies.

On 17 minutes, Bracknell struck back. A catch and drive from an attacking line out was feed in field to Patrick Fitzgerald on a hard line and he forced his way over. The conversion was struck true by Oli Radford and the scores were level at 7-7. This lead was short lived - chasing back a long kick into their 22 two Bracknell players tried but failed to collect the loose ball - The Rams chasers won the race and touched down. The try was converted and the Rams led 7-14.

On 23 minutes Bracknell received a team yellow for continual infringements and the Rams exploited the extra forward with a well constructed catch and drive from an attacking line out, the conversion was missed and the half finished with the Rams leading 7-19.

The second half will be remembered for the staggering penalty count - 15 to 3 in Bracknell's favour.

The clamours for yellow cards following continual infringements from the visitors were perhaps warranted, and eventually after the 8th straight infringements the card was produced - you could question why it took so long, but this would be missing the point.

The 15 penalties awarded against the Rams, in the majority in their own half, gave Bracknell multiple attacking 5 meter line outs and other attacking opportunities, so it was staggering how the home team were unable to convert this pressure, procession and territory into sufficient points to win this game comfortably. Perhaps the home side lacked the necessary composure to execute in the red zone as once again attack after attack was countered with stout Rams defence and unforced errors.

Bracknell did fight back though, with two well executed try's on 19 & 29 minutes which showed they had the ability to breakdown the Rams defence. Firstly, Michael Hardcastle attacked down a narrow blindside following a scrum taken against the head - one on one there is no better finisher - and Sam Dunks benefited from another excellent catch and drive from the Bracknell pack.

In these moments a 17-19, it looked like Bracknell could secure what appeared to be an unlikely victory. However, the Rams are clearly made of sterner stuff and completed a well deserved win with a penalty on 32 minutes and a superb try from a cross kick which converted defence in to attack. The Rams winger collected the kick, and stepped two defenders before racing in to complete the scoring.

The Rams warranted this hard fought 17-27 victory, their colts first at Lily Hill Park for many years, so congratulations to them.

From a Bracknell perspective, this was a stuttering performance, perhaps with one to many new combinations in the line up which took time to settle. But Colts rugby is about learning from experience and both sides would have learnt a lot about themselves in today's fine spectacle.