Bracknell took a large squad to play in the shadow of Windsor Castle, in a friendly fixture with their old rivals. Both sides intended to use this as an opportunity to mix their squads up and provide game time to all who made the effort to be there. This can result in a fragment game with neither side being able to settle in to a rhythm, however it was perhaps the referees interpretation of the breakdown and the offside line that nullified any real continuity or rhythm from either side.

The early phases were dominated by Bracknell who found themselves 0-7 up on 4 minutes following some structured plays resulting in Grant Coates finding a gap in 13 channel to race under the posts. Jake Findley converted.

Windsor battled hard, and gained ground, but ultimately lost the ball. The ball was moved wide left to Tom Crawshaw, again following some structured phases. The winger scored in the corner, finishing with pace and power. The conversion was missed.

So 10 minutes in, Bracknell led 0-12, and it looked like it was going to be a tough day for Windsor. But to their credit they worked hard and pressured Bracknell in to unforced errors, knocking them out of their stride. Being penalised constantly at the breakdown put Bracknell on the back foot feeling they couldn't compete for the ball. The Windsor pressure continued, and Bracknell defended well, and had to live on scraps for the next 20 minutes.

A loose Windsor kick deep in to the Bracknell half was collected and moved left by the Bracknell back three, releasing Ton Crawshaw in to some space, who along with Jacob Elliott had troubled the Windsor wide players. The rangy winger out stripped the Windsor cover, and shifted the ball well to his outside hand to fend the Windsor full back to score his 2nd. The conversion was struck well, but wide in a strong wind.

Turning around at half time with a 0-17 lead Bracknell made 9 changes, and it took a while for these changes to settle and take charge. In the meantime, Windsor took full advantage spending the 1st quarter of the half trying to breakdown the Bracknell defence. Ultimately this pressure told with a fine outside break splitting the Bracknell centres to score wide on the left. The conversion was missed.

Slowly but surely, Bracknell began putting some structure back in to their game, and following a back row charge up field, with multiple offloads the pressure was back on Windsor, this resulted in a penalty line out in the left hand corner. Whilst the ball was overthrown, missing the intended jumper, Dan Roux standing at the back reacted quickest, snapped the ball up and crashing over to score a try on his first outing this season. Jake Findley converted well.

The game continued to be fragmented with constant infringements and whistle!

The final score came from a poor Windsor kick across field in to the strong wind, and straight in to the hands of Grant Coates. He moved the ball wide to Julian Guy, who took his opposite number on and offloaded the ball back to Grant wrapping around the half tackle to score out wide. The conversion was missed, and at full time Bracknell had a hard fought encounter 5-29.

This was a good squad workout for both sides, so a big thanks to Windsor for their hospitality.

Bracknell now move on to the 3rd round of the U18 National Colts Cup with another win under their belt.