Banbury couldn’t replicate the previous weekend’s result with a humbling defeat against Bracknell RFC. Despite a brace of tries from Alex Garbett, Bracknell would come out on top with a 25-46 victory.

The previous weekends victory hadn’t come without consequences, Ed Berridge (elbow) and James Hibbert (hamstring) both joining the ever-increasing injury list for Banbury.

The warning signs for Banbury were there from the start with Bracknell driving a rolling maul over in the opening minutes of the game. Noah Cannon added a second try for the away side when he gathered a cross field kick to score in the corner. Ken Hodgson added a third when he burst off the back of a 5m scrum to score from close range and Bracknell had raced into an early 0-15 lead.

Tom Burman got Banbury on the scoreboard when he broke through a pair of tackles to score close to the posts. Ed Phillips adding the extras. 7-15.

Any hopes of a Banbury comeback were quickly extinguished though with Bracknell adding two more tries either side of a yellow card for Banbury’s Dan Brady. Only poor kicking from Bracknell kept the score down with all 5 conversions missing the target. 7-25.

Ed Phillips kicked an easy penalty for Banbury to reduce the gap, but Ken Hodgson punished more poor defending from Banbury to make it 10-32 at the half time whistle.

Banbury started the second half well. Bracknell had a man yellow carded, and the Bulls took advantage of the extra man to send Alex Garbett over the try line.

An unlikely comeback could have been on but in the worst moment possible, Banbury knocked on under little pressure to gift Bracknell another try.

Ed Phillips added another penalty after Bracknell were penalised for being offside. Alex Garbett quickly followed this with his second try of the afternoon when he dived over in the right-hand corner to narrow the gap to 25-39.

In the final minutes with the game out of reach for Banbury, Bracknell added a final try when William Field crossed in the clubhouse corner. Oliver Radford converted to leave the final score 25-46 at the full-time whistle.

A disappointing afternoon for the Bulls. Bracknell blew away Banbury in the opening half and despite an improved performance in the second half the damage was already done in the opening stages.

Match Stats:
Tries: Alex Garbett (2) Tom Burman
Conversions: Ed Phillips (2)
Penalties: Ed Phillips (2)

Speaking to Head Coach, Soane Tonga’uiha, after the game:

25-46, it was a disappointing result from the Bulls today, wasn’t it?
“Yeah, definitely. We spoke about making our home ground a fortress as the boys have done the last few seasons. It’s disappointing like you said. Not so much the result but the way the boys performed. That was the disappointing thing for me.”

The Bulls did improve in the second half, but in reality, that game was lost after the opening forty minutes, wasn’t it?
“Bracknell are a good team. When you give a good team that kind of lead, the hill becomes too big for us to climb. The other sign of a good team is that any time we got some momentum and started to eat into the lead they cancelled it out and scored one of their own. I think that’s the only positive from today is that we fought back in parts but give credit to Bracknell, they never let us back into it.”

They’re a young squad and they’ll improve as the season goes, but what when wrong today?
“It was a bit of everything today. In all honesty, I think the boys will watch the video back and they’ll be embarrassed about the way they performed. That’s not what we’re about or what we talked about at training. I don’t know what was going through their minds before the game in the build up or what they think about while the game is going on, but that’s not what we’re about. I think it was embarrassing how we performed. I’m not taking anything away from how Bracknell performed but we didn’t help ourselves in any way today.”

Maidenhead next week, they’re the early league leaders. It’s as tough a fixture as you could expect at this level. Will the reaction from the boys be what’s most important this week?
“That’s the beauty about rugby. You get to right the wrongs the following week. We’ll park today’s performance. Quick review of it and then on to Maidenhead. Like you said they’re top of the league. Maximum points in all three games. It’s going to be a massive task for us. But it’s up to the boys and how willing they are to taking on that challenge. We’ll prepare the best we can and I’m sure the boys would like to right some wrongs from today’s match.”