Colts lose exhilarating cup tie

This was an archetypal and exhilarating national cup tie played in the greatest of spirit, it was pulsating stuff, the game moving from end to end, the lead changing 6 times and a minute second half to add to the drama. Marlow play a league below Bracknell which is quite bizarre after such a complete performance against a strong Bracknell XV who are riding high in Division One.

The opening encounters suggested this was going to be a good day for the hosts who strung together multiple phases changing the point of attack - the continuity was good, but so was the intrusive defensive efforts of the visitors. Marlow were energetic, physical and resolute in their defence, but these early exchanges also illustrated how narrow the Bracknell game has become - forwards ran at forwards around the fringes and the wingers lived inside the 15m lines.

The 10/ 12 channel should have been the target for the big lads, sucking in the Midfield creating the space out wide for the whippets, so whilst the Marlow defence was impressive and tenacious, there we too many easy kills and rarely space or an advantage in numbers in the wider channels.

In the face of an oppressive and organised defensive patterns and structures need to be executed well or adjusted accordingly - neither happened and this set the tone for the rest of the game.

Marlow, having absorbed the early pressure took the lead with a well stuck penalty by fly half Jamie Madden. Oli Radford missed an opportunity from 38m to level on 28 minutes. Soon after Luke Fisher left the field with a back injury to be replaced by Chris Wilson playing the first game of the season following a serious knee injury - his impact was immediate with a line break taking play deep in to the Marlow half, the resultant penalty was taken quickly and halted by a retreating player who was given a yellow card. Bracknell exploited the advantage immediately with a kick to touch and a catch & drive from the line out - Sam Dunks popped up with the ball, Oli slotted the conversation from out wide and Bracknell had a 7-3 lead.

Shortly after Bracknell's numbers were reduced when Chris Wilson received a yellow card for handling in a ruck and the 1st half finished with Bracknell holding an unlikely lead.

The error count had again been high, and playing under a great deal of pressure Bracknell's patterns and structures were faltering - the narrow attacks were killing them, the lack of ideas equally so - game management is critical in these situations, as is familiarisation of the structures and patterns of play - these need to be honed, refined and must become second nature on the training paddock - perhaps the recent lack of focus in training and the missing key personnel impacted in the home teams ability to adjust and change the faults of the 1st half.

Marlow started the second period well, kicking long, chasing well and exploiting the blindside to score wide out - the conversion was missed and Marlow led 7-8.

Both sides were now back to full strength, but this was short lived as Patrick Fitzgerald received a yellow for an attempted intercept that was adjudged to be a deliberate knock-on. Marlow now had their tails up, Bracknell were under increasing pressure, and another Marlow penalty extended the lead to 7-11. There was no advantage of numbers outside for Bracknell to exploit, so a more direct intrusive style of play was required, the pick and drive had been effective but used to infrequently.

On 17 minutes Jamie Madden kicked another penalty to extend the lead further, but Bracknell are made of tough stuff, and forced a penalty line out close to Marlow's line which was converted in to points once again with a well executed catch and drive. Oli struck the ball well from wide out to level the scores at 14-14. But once again Jamie Madden struck another goal to regain the lead at 14-17.

There was now some confusion about how much time was left, and the half was to be extended to 45 minutes, but this overtime was thoroughly entertaining to the neutral or otherwise.

Bracknell began to play with some freedom, if not within their patterns - balls were won against the head, the forwards drove hard and overlaps were created but the final pass was missing, opportunities went incomplete - core skills can falter under pressure, unless they are developed in focused and high quality training sessions, that's where the hard work is done, then passes stick, overlaps are exploited.

However, occasionally there is a moment of individual excellence to give hope - Callum Baker received the ball in the widest channel, beating his man he chipped the the cover and won the race to the ball - Oli struck another pressure cooker conversion and perhaps Callum had played Bracknell's 'Get out of jail card'. They now led 21-17, was there time for Marlow to chase down the lead?

With the half now well over the 40 minutes the game continued and Marlow attacked hard, striving to turn the tables once again - pressing up field they crossed the line but were held up, but were rewarded with a scrum 5m out for one last throw of the dice.

The ball was secured, and a simple but well executed switch found the excellent Caleb Selman on the charge, he crossed the line with ease. The extra points were secured by Jamie Madden and the game was won 21-24.

There is no doubt this game could have gone either way, but Marlow knocked Bracknell out of their stride early on. Game awareness is all about finding ways to break oppressive defences down, changing points of attack, adjusting structures & patterns, and changing mind sets with composure in critical moments - this is a skill and comes from experience, and Bracknell would have learnt a great deal from Sunday's experience, this now needs to be taken in to focused and high quality training sessions. If I'm to be critical, this game was not lost on Sunday, but on the preceding Thursday's since the last competitive league fixture - sessions have lacked discipline and focus, attendance from some has been poor, these are not the foundations required to fine tune patterns, structures, understanding a game plan, game awareness or develop core skills so they hold up under intense pressure - perhaps this could be considered a harsh critique, but it is an honest appraisal.

Marlow were good value for their win, and had some extra players on show - we hope they progress, as they were also a decent bunch to have a pint with post match - good luck in the next round guys...

On a positive note, Bracknell were able to field two Colts teams (with slightly reduced numbers due to a couple of late withdrawals), which is a credit to all involved - not many clubs, certainly not locally can boost about the fact that 30 U18's represent their club on the same day. The 2nd XV travelled to Grove and put in a shift scoring a couple of tries against some stern opposition - well done lads.