In glorious sunshine at Lily Hill Park, 3rd place Bracknell Colts hosted 2nd place Windsor Colts, who were currently undefeated in the league so far this season. Windsor won the toss and chose to play uphill in the first half, and we started strongly from the opening kick off. Our usual sleepy start was nowhere to be seen and we matched Windsor play for play in the middle of the park. There was no score after 25 mins when the Windsor centre got yellow-carded for handing off with his fist, and Bracknell looked to capitalise.
Some scrappy play in the middle of the pitch suddenly allowed Zach to break away and kick ahead, and after a second kick ahead near the 22, he was wiped out off the ball by the Windsor full back. Thomas managed to touch the ball down for our opening try, and the infringement on Zach resulted in another yellow card for Windsor, just as their first card was ending. Confusion amongst our subs meant that we were too slow getting the kicking tee on for Fin so we weren't able to convert, but we took a 5-0 lead into half time.
In the second half Windsor had the downhill advantage, and immediately capitalised with a breakaway score under the posts and took the lead 5-7. Windsor then had a strong attacking period, and Bracknell's defence held firm through several phases, eventually holding the ball up over the line. However, from the dropout under the posts Windsor attacked again, and cut through our lines to score in the right corner, to lead 5-12.
A late Windsor penalty in front of our posts meant we were 5-15 down with 7 minutes to go, and we threw everything at Windsor to try and get at least a losing bonus point. We camped in the Windsor half, but to their defence's credit we couldn't find a way through so that remained the final score.
Although it wasn't the result we wanted, all our players should be hugely proud of the level of their performance, and we really made Windsor work for their win. Prior to today, they had steamrollered 4 wins out of 4, scoring 139 points and conceding only 39, so it was by far and away their toughest challenge to date.

by Phil Wells