The result flattered the opposition somewhat with the Bulls being in close range at just 13-9 down after 60 minutes but a seven minute lapse saw them concede 19 points and ultimately the game.

Camp Hill started the game the stronger of the two sides and after just 15 minutes had established a 10 point lead thanks to an 11 minute penalty and a 15 minute converted try to Ian Briggs and things looked somewhat ominous for the Bulls.

However the second quarter of the game saw the Bulls come right back into it with some promising rugby resulting in two penalties in quick succession which allowed fly half Mike Smith to step up and covert to reduce Camp Hills lead to just four points.

The final points of the half went to Camp Hill with Briggs converting a penalty kick to give the visitors a 13-6 half time lead.

Four minutes into the second half an indiscretion at the breakdown by Camp Hill hooker Adam Willis resulted in him being sent to the sin bin and Smith slotted his third penalty goal for the Bulls to reduce the deficit back to four points at 13-9. Unfortunately the Bulls were unable to take any further advantage with Camp Hill down to 14 men.

In fact 10 minutes later it was Bulls centre Guy Sturla who was on the wrong end of the referee’s whistle as he conceded a penalty at the breakdown and a yellow card to see the Bulls reduced to 14 men.

Unfortunately for the home side the visitors were able to take full toll of the one man advantage they had running in two converted tries to stretched their lead from 13-9 to 27-9 in the space of five minutes and although the Bulls had Sturla return to the game they conceded their third try of the half in the 67th minute which took the game beyond them.

The final 13 minutes were played out with no further scoring action, leaving the Bulls to rue a seven minute spell midway through the second half which saw them concede 19 points.

Bulls coach Grant Holmes was frustrated with his side’s performance as he cited a lack of fitness as the key element to their eventual downfall.

“As a whole we were not fit enough to press on in the second half and the 19 points in seven minutes came from mistakes we made and not having the right players in the right place at the right time due to not being fit enough to get there.”

“The long spell off due to the snow and the mandatory Christmas break has worked as a double edged sword. On the plus side it has allowed some of our long term injured players the chance to recover while missing a lot less games than first anticipated, but on the other hand it has seen our fitness levels drop dramatically.”
“We were able to match them for long periods of the game but ultimately their superior fitness was a major factor in the result. They were able to work a lot harder to get around the pitch and make a difference when they attacked us. On the other hand a lot of our promising attacking play petered out the more phases we went through as we started to run out of options as players were not able to get to where they needed to be to make a difference.”

“In this league you cannot rely on training nights alone to get you into the right shape to be competitive. The guys have to take a bit more responsibility for their own personal fitness levels by doing some work outside our training hours.”

“We have shown that we can compete for significant periods of the game against some of the top sides in our last two games but we must take that next step and eliminate these 5-10 minute lapses in our game which are costing us dearly.”

“We will certainly take a lot of heart out of the performance but we also realise that to turn these performances into wins we have to work a lot harder during the week to get ourselves into better shape.”