It was a bright and calm day at Bodicote Park on Saturday for the Intermediate Cup first round match between Banbury Bulls and Aston Old Edwardians, with the sun the only thing that may cause problems as it crept ever lower in the autumnal sky. The Old Eds skipper taking this into consideration when winning the toss, chose to play with the sun on their backs in the first half.

Banbury kicked off and Aston Old Ed’s kept possession well for the opening exchanges only to be matched by Banbury’s improving defence. I t was against the run of play when the Bulls chalked up their first score. A clearance kick from the visitors was collected well in-field by the covering Andy Gilbert on his return to first team duties. He timed his pass to skipper Ed Phillips, also returning to the fray after a toe injury, who then stepped through the covering defence. Drawing the fullback, Phillips passed to Number 8 Ant McClellan, who still had a lot to do in brushing off the winger and further covering tackles from the Old Ed’s back line before scoring in the corner. With full-back Andrew Joubert missing a tough conversation attempt, the Bulls had a 5 point lead.

The game progressed in much the same way as the first half unfolded. Despite Old Eds seeing more of the ball and having the upper hand at scrum time, when Banbury had a chance with the ball in hand they were struck with devastating precision. This was demonstrated first by centre James Heyward, who, pouncing on a misplaced pass, stripped the entire Old Ed’s back line for pace and ran in from half way to score under the posts. Joubert easily converted and Banbury were 12-0 up. This was quickly followed with a blind side move from an attacking Bull’s scrum where McClellan drew 2 men and passed to skipper Phillips. The scrum-half drew a further player and passed to the supporting Joubert who stepped his opposite man with ease and ran home for Banbury’s third try in 15 minutes. Converting his own score from the touchline, he had helped the Bulls build a 19-0 lead.

Old Eds battled back into contention, getting good possession and field position in the Banbury half, but when Phillips striped the ball from one of the Aston second rows the break was on. He slipped the ball to his fellow half back, Jed Boyle who needed no second invitation to take the gap on offer. He sucked in the fullback and put Heyward in for his second try who, despite options to pass both left and right, dealt with the Old Ed’s covering defender when caught close to the line. Joubert now had plenty of conversion practice and sent the ball sailing between the uprights to further extend the home sides lead.

Shortly after Banbury again caught the ball well in-field from an Aston Old Ed’s clearance kick and Phillips again cut the defence in half before putting Boyle away for his 3rd try of the season, Joubert, again converting. Banbury’s scoring in the first half was not yet over and they scored their best try of the half when they finally got the chance to put some phases together. A wide move in the backs was executed well and finished off superbly by Joubert, who beat numerous defenders to finish and convert his own try from under the posts. At the end of a superb first half, the Bulls changed ends 40-0 up.

After half-time Banbury were keen not to let their performance drop and this was the case as they came out and scored first. Again Banbury’s forwards worked the phases well and as Old Eds tried to kill the ball it popped out the back of the ruck, where it was collected well by prop, Owen Perkins. He found Phillips with his pass and seeing no one at home, the skipper chipped over the visitors defensive line, squeezed through and collected his perfectly weighted kick to score. Again the conversion was simple for Banbury’s fullback who was really starting to rack up the points.

Finally Aston Old Eds possession was to count for something as they kept the ball tight and wore down Banbury’s defence, finally getting the reward of their first try from their open side flanker, the extras were not added and this left the score at 47-5. There followed a much more of an even contest for the next 15 minutes with Banbury forced to defend for much of it. The solid defence put up by Banbury was consistently putting down the Old Ed’s attackers, and this resulted in yet another breakaway try. After the Bulls defence had turned the ball over in the tackle, it was spun back to Boyle who, rather than attempting a clearance kick within his own dead ball area, beat three defenders with one side step, then beat two more while still in Banbury’s 22. He then found give winger Andrew Mawle in support who showed his pace to run in from halfway. For only the second time Joubert failed to claim the extra points.

Despite this hammer blow, Old Eds continued to put some possession together and they finally broke Banbury down for the second time, again with a big back row forward crashing over, but by this time the contest was more than over and the 2 points added from the conversion would make little difference to the result.

Banbury were to have the last words though as they added a further two tries, firstly when substitute Ryan Woodward was put clear on the right, he didn’t have to break out of a jog to score Banbury’s ninth try of the afternoon, with Joubert slotting his seventh conversion. That was to be the last of the long-range tries, as Banbury worked the phases well to force a penalty. The Bulls kicked to the corner, won the resulting line out, and with the blind side left unguarded, Man of the Match Andrew Chapman went over to score final points of the match. As Joubert slid the ball past the upright, the final whistle went and Banbury left the pitch clear winners 64-12.

The Bulls will look to take this form into the league next week as they travel to Shipston-on-Stour for something of a local derby match.