A busy day on a damp but firm pitch at Lily Hill started with Bracknell U18's welcoming their friends and rivals Reading Abbey U18's for very competitive opening fixture in the U18 BBO 'B' Division.

There was a great deal of discussion during the closed season about squad sizes and clubs ability to field two teams on the same day. The home team were confident, and today Bracknell U18's fielded 37 players across two fixtures, a great effort. By contrast, Reading Abbey had cancelled their 'A' fixture in Division 2 to fulfil this fixture, and ultimately this little extra class in the Reading Abbey line up proved decisive.

Bracknell had started the strongest, the structure was good and the pressure told with a series of penalties creating an attacking field position. The Abbey 10 cleared his lines, under pressure from the Bracknell back row, the clearance didn't find touch and was returned with a some strong running in to the midfield by Julian Guy. An attacking ruck was formed, and Ben Hallaways bust a hole in the Abbey defence to sprint 30m to score. Oli Radford converted. A great start for Bracknell and after 10 minutes they had the ascendancy, but this was to change slowly. In particular, the tackling was too high, and whilst most the tackles were made, ground was conceded beyond the tackle line.

The error count began to infiltrate the Bracknell performance, and whilst the running was strong in the midfield, varying the point of attack with a couple of extra passes was required at times. The width was missing from the Bracknell game, but not from Abbey. As the Abbey forwards began to claw back some ground, their backs moved the ball wide with some excellent handling and running lines. A couple of penalties and a well worked try in the corner for Abbey, gave them an unexpected lead at half time.

The message at this point was improve the communication, lower the tackles, and dominate the contact area. A number of changes were also made to both sides, changes that significantly improves the Abbey side who brought on their A team players.

The second half began with an Abbey score from a centre field scrum, with the Bracknell being outstripped from the base of the scrum. This set the tone of the half.

But the Bracknell team could not be faulted for their endeavour and worked hard to limit the potential damage, especially when down to 14 men for the last 10 minutes. The Bracknell forwards struggled to secure good quality ball for the Bracknell half backs to release their backs, and Abbey completed the scoring with a couple of well worked try's, perhaps aided again by a few missed tackles.

Ultimately, whilst Bracknell contributed to a number of the Abbey try's, but the work rate was good, and with a little more structure, plus quicker ball Bracknell could have completed more in the 2nd half. Abbey dominated the contact area for the majority of the game which allowed them to play 'front foot' rugby they excel at. The final score didn't entirely reflect the game, but that is the beauty of sport.

There were some good individual performances, throughout and in spells, and what this shows is strength in depth through this squad of players. There are many pushing for inclusion in the A team match day squad, so keep up the hard work, and don't be too down hearted about the result today. Some small incremental improvements in a couple of areas could have closed the gap against what was, in reality, an Abbey A/B team.

However, credit to Reading Abbey for their win, and we look forward to meeting again in the return fixture later in the season.