Bracknell arrived in Chobham with 13 players due to injury but with of one our stalwarts making a welcome return, Lawrence Grazier at fullback. Chobham had more than enough players so we borrowed two of theirs for each half.
Bracknell competed well for the first 20 minutes only conceding a converted try in this period, but unfortunately as in the previous game we failed to capitalise on some promising moves often involving a knock on. This handed the initiative to Chobham, whose game was just getting into its rhythm halfway through the first half. After some sustained pressure and good defence, Bracknell were caught napping and scored the first of two try’s in quick succession, both converted in an exemplary display of kicking by Chobham’s number 13. Bracknell’s intensity dropped a little after this and conceded another converted try just before halftime. It could have been worse, some stout defence held up another try and Price’s kicking alleviated some of the pressure.
It was thought that the slope was not helping Bracknell and as we only conceded twelve further points in the second half this proved to be the case. Bracknell had some pressure in the first part of the second half but as in the first half promising possession and a number of phases was not turned into points. Chobham scored two further try’s midway through the second period, the last one being the try of the match, with their lock running through Bracknell for 30 metres before an excellent offload to a team mate to score, the conversion was missed to complete not quite the perfect day for Chobham.
With about 5 minutes left Bracknell rallied and put pressure on the Chobham try line. As is always the case in rugby, Bracknell did not want to leave without scoring and of course some resolute defence, maybe a bit robust on one occasion close to the touchline, showed Chobham did not wish to concede. In the last ten minutes, Harvey almost broke through Chobham’s defence with some good improvisation which unfortunately went unrewarded.
Despite this loss Bracknell can take some positives, there were less missed tackles than the previous game. The drive and determination shown in the last ten minutes shows the team has it in them to compete, and they would benefit from more of this. Your writer feels that picking a squad captain would help with the leadership on the pitch and the whole team could do with being more vocal. The pick up and go which developed well at the end of the last match went back into hibernation. Kicking from hand continued to be a plus. The lineouts showed an improvement over the previous match, being thrown straighter and further depending on the line call.
Although results are not going our way, the squad can be proud of themselves for fulfilling their fixture obligations and I am sure if we can get the whole squad out on the park on the same day we will see some positive results.