The fixture list has undoubtedly been unkind to Banbury with as hard an opening five fixtures as you could expect at this level. Despite Camberley also being promoted to this league like Banbury, significant investment in their playing squad also makes them one of the favourites for promotion this season.

Banbury’s injury list has unfortunately been growing rapidly since the start of the regular season and there was quite a bit of reorganising to be done to get a strong squad out. Eoghan Evan-Jones was handed his first start for the Bulls, whilst Chris Davies, Dan Kirwin and Tommy Gray returned to the squad.

Camberley absolutely flew out the blocks and Banbury didn’t touch the ball in the opening five minutes. The Bulls defended well but eventually the pressure gave way and Ed Grosvenor scored under the posts for the home side. There was a hint of a forward pass in the build-up, but nothing given. Converted, 7-0.

Banbury responded well with a penalty of their own at the restart after some lovely work from George Ding at the breakdown won the Bulls a penalty. Louis Richards calmly slotted the penalty, 7-3.

The home side fought straight back with two more tries though. First Tom Allen scored down the right wing after Camberley took advantage of an extra man down the blindside. Conversion missed.

Alex Young added another after the Camberley backs exploited some poor defending from Banbury to score in the corner. It looked like there had been a clear knock-on in the build-up, but the home side played to the whistle for the score. Conversion missed, 17-3.

Banbury dug deep though and found there way back into the game with some good pressure from the defence. Dan Kirwin intercepting a loose pass from Camberley to run in an easy try in the left corner. Louis Richards added a lovely side line conversion to make it 17-10.

The Bulls had their tails up and were soon back in the opposition half but a knock on from Banbury gifted Camberley another try. Jaid Wiltshire scoring in the corner as Banbury scrambled to get back in defence. Conversion missed, 22-10.

Quinten Blythe produced some magic to bring Banbury back before the half-time whistle. Jack Briggs made a lovely one on one tackle to stop what looked like a certain try and Quinten scooped up the loose ball in his own 22, stepped two players before outsprinting three more defenders to score a brilliant solo effort. Louis Richards added another side line conversion to make it 22-17 at the half time whistle.

The positivity of the end of the first half was soon wiped out by the start of the second. Camberley put up a monster kick to start the second half which the home side gathered and neatly offloaded to play in Adam Pickett for the try. Converted, 29-17.

The Bulls fought hard to close the gap, but the try wouldn’t come. Banbury knocked on what looked like a nailed on try over the line and had another one ripped out as a rolling maul was about to go over the line. Unfortunately for Banbury these missed opportunities would come back to haunt them at the end of the game.

Liam Prescott kicked a penalty to extend the lead for Camberley and then two late Adam Musa tries sealed the result for the home side. Prescott added the extras to make it 46-17 at the full-time whistle.

A tough result for Banbury. Truthfully, the half-time score line probably flattered the Bulls a little and the full-time score line was harsh on the boys. Like in previous weeks, Banbury have looked good in spells but need to convert it to the full 80 minutes to start picking up the results their efforts deserve. Banbury now have a week off before Brighton at home and with the number of injuries the Bulls currently have, the break comes at an ideal time.

Match Stats:
Tries: Dan Kirwin, Quinten Blythe
Conversions: Louis Richards (2)
Penalties: Louis Richards (1)

Speaking to Director of Rugby, Matt Goode, after the game:

46-17, a tough result for the Bulls today, where do you think it went wrong?
“Yeah, it was tough, we’re making too many mistakes at the moment. Camberley played a good game, I thought they were probably the best team we’ve played this season so far, but we gave them too many opportunities. At this level the mistakes cost you tries and points.”

Banbury look like they’re not far away from picking up some decent results is it just about eliminating the errors and continuing to grow as a squad?
“We’re getting closer. I think we’ve missed out on quite a few bonus points we should have got in recent weeks and that’s frustrating, but I think we’re getting there. We need to learn fast, we don’t want to be fighting near the bottom. We’ve got a young squad, but they’ve got the talent to play at this level.”

A week off comes at probably just the right time for the Bulls, there’s a lot of injuries in the squad at the moment, are you hoping to have some of the boys back for the Brighton game?
“We should have a few boys back. I think the boys that have come in have done well but you need that competition for places. Quite a few of the boys have small niggles and a week off will be good for them. Brighton will be a tough game but with our support and some boys back in the squad I think it’ll be a good game.”