The Banbury Bulls bounced back from the previous week’s big loss in the best possible fashion with a morale boosting victory over Old Laurentians at Bodicote Park by 20 points to 14.

The game couldn’t have started much better for the home side as they attacked from the outset with centre Dave Taylor having the visiting sides defence at sixes and sevens early on to take his team deep into Old Laurentians territory. The ball was recycled on the right hand side and shifted wide to the left where wing Andrew Mawle stepped inside his opposite number and out sprinted the cover defence to score out wide. Fly half Mike Smith was on target with his first kick of the game to give the Bulls an early 7 point lead after just three minutes.

The Bulls continued to attack and should have at least doubled their lead before the game was 20 minutes old as they squandered two try scoring opportunities as referee Sandy Flakelar deemed on both occasions that the final scoring pass was forward.

These missed opportunities kick started Old Laurentians into action and they came back hard at the Bulls with a strong run down the right hand side by wing Simon Bayliss almost bringing them their first points of the half, however an excellent tackle by Bulls fullback Peter Flemming stamped out the opportunity.

On the half hour mark the visitors managed to level the scores. A penalty awarded just inside the Bulls half was kicked into the corner and the ensuing catch and drive by the forwards stopped just a metre from the line, from this situation scrum half Ricky Reid was able to dive over to score. Fly half Jon Bean slotted the conversion to even things up at 7 all.

As the clock ticked down towards the half time break the Bulls managed to recapture the lead with a fantastic try from within their own half. Mawle collected a high ball and ran around the first two defenders before releasing a long pass to centre Taylor who beat one man before releasing right wing Chris Davies into the clear some 25 metres out and he sprinted in to score in the corner. Smith was unable to add the extra points but his conversion attempt signalled the end of the half with the Bulls in the lead by 12-7.

The second half started much the same as the first as the Bulls scored within minutes of the restart. A scrum feed inside their own half saw the Bulls back line run the ball and with a switch in the centres confusing the opposition, inside centre James Heywood released fullback Flemming who fed the ball wide to Mawle who stepped easily inside his opposite number on the halfway line and then out sprinted the cover defence to score. Again Smith was off target with the conversion but the Bulls were now 17-7 up.

Five minutes later and the Bulls stretched their lead to 13 points as Smith found the target with a penalty in front of the posts which also saw Old Laurentians fly half Jon Bean sent to the sin bin. But Smith failed in two other attempts soon after which if successful would have sealed victory for the Bulls with plenty of time still on the clock.

Old Laurentians not intent to play second fiddle throughout the game came back at the Bulls and several penalties conceded at the breakdown saw the visitors try and bash their way to the line. However some fantastic defence saw the Bulls keep their line in tact, that was until a speculative kick in behind the Bulls back line appeared to be easily cleaned up by Mawle but he fumbled the ball under the goal posts to allow Old Laurentians centre Ben Shepherd to score. Fullback John Carruthers added the easy conversion and at 20-14 the game was very much back in the balance.

Sixty seven minutes into the game and a serious ankle injury to Old Laurentians fly half Jon Bean stopped the game for a good 25 minutes as the teams waited for an ambulance to arrive and stretcher the player from the field.

The final 13 minutes were dominated by the Bulls as they went in search of a bonus point for scoring four tries but it didn’t go without a wobble as a mazy run by Bayliss saw him beat several defenders but his pass to his support players was poor and the Bulls managed to scramble back. The final four minutes were played deep in Old Laurentians territory and with the referee indicating that time was up skipper Ed Phillips kicked the ball into touch for a much needed win for the Bulls.

Bulls coach Grant Holmes was delighted with his side’s performance.

“We had to pick ourselves up after our performance the previous week and I was pleased with the reaction of the players as they had to dig deep to earn the victory.”

“I believe Old Laurentians were missing three of four first choice players, so in that respect we were pretty even as we lost our influential number 8 Simon Brand to injury at training on Thursday evening. Thursday night was not a great night as we also lost hard running centre Guy Sturla to a calf injury and when you add the loss of Peter Papenfus and Sam Boyle last weekend there were quite a few holes to fill.”

“But the guys stepped up and did the job. We were full credit for the win, we were the better side in almost all aspects of the game and with more patience and some better decision making during the first half we could have been out of site at the break as I think I counted about five fantastic scoring opportunities that we squandered.”

“With Simon out of the side we were missing our number one ball carrier so the onus before the game was for the rest of the pack to step up and take over some of the responsibilities in that department. Chris Phillips stepped in to number 8 for I think only the second time that I can recall and made a good fist of things while his two back row partners Darren De Bruyn and Will Oldham had big games.”

“I was also pleased to see us move the ball a bit wider this weekend and we proved on occasion that we are capable of creating things out of nothing. On the flip side there were some disappointing moments when some indecisive play saw us put ourselves under unnecessary pressure. We need to make positive choices on the pitch and follow them through, not get ourselves caught in two minds as when this happens we tend to do daft things.”

“It is too late to save ourselves from relegation but we are determined to finish the season on a positive note by claiming a handful of wins. Saturday’s victory equalled the number of wins we achieved the last time we were in this league therefore we have a small milestone to reach by improving on that and we are confident we can achieve this against Worcester Wanderers this weekend. They scored a great win on the weekend so will be tough but the lads keen to make it back to back wins.”