In warm autumnal sunshine at Lily Hill Park, we hosted Tring in the first round of the National Colts Cup with a prime slot on Pitch One and a great crowd to cheer us on. We had the slope with us first half, and attacked from the outset. Scott broke through from centre to score in the left corner in the 3rd minute, and Louis couldn't quite squeeze the tough conversion over, but we were 5-0 to the good and off to a strong start. Tring then hit back hard and we defended valiantly for multiple phases, but near the midpoint of the first half they scored in the left corner which made it 5-5.
To our credit, the Bracknell Colts responded by upping the aggression, and produced some solid attacking phases, driving into the Tring half. Thomas broke away from just outside the 22, and managed to drive and wrestle over the line near the right corner for a well deserved score. Louis W had another tough kick which went close, but we had moved 10-5 ahead. Most of the rest of the half was spent cancelling each other out in the middle of the pitch, but then Tring secured a penalty on the 22 in front of the posts, and kicked over to close to 10-8. The final action of the first half was a Bracknell attack breaking into the Tring half, and Will broke their defensive line to score under the posts. Louis nailed the extras so it was 17-8 to BRFC at half time.
The second half was always going to be tough playing uphill, but we defended bravely and with only 10 mins left there had been no further score. However, Tring had come close to scoring several times, and eventually scored under the posts and converted to make it 17-15. With 7 mins remaining we conceded a penalty in front of the posts, so for the first time in the match we were trailing 17-18.
The remainder of the match was continuous Bracknell pressure but we couldn't nail the score we needed. In the last minute we spun the ball wide and the stretched Tring defence did a high tackle that nearly took Will's head off and earned the tackler a yellow card. Fin took the penalty which turned out to be the last kick of the game from the 15m line just outside the 22, and as it sailed over the crossbar (by at least 6 inches according to the touch judge!) the final whistle blew and we had a pitch invasion to celebrate our 20-18 victory.
Plenty to work on to improve some of our game play, but all round a great team effort and in particular a massive defensive shift from all involved. Also a great shout to those lads who weren't in the match squad today but turned up either to help with the warm up or just provide loud support.

by Phil Wells