Bodicote Park – Saturday 7th November 2015

Match report by Ed Phillips

The morning’s heavy rain passed and the sun came out to make it a lovely autumnal day for Banbury to play their usual brand of expansive, exciting and attractive rugby.

It wasn’t long before top of the table Bulls were on the score board. Dunlop won the toss and elected to play into a strong wind, and Banbury made use of this with immediate effect. From the kick off they kicked the ball deep and penned Dunlop into their own 22. Banbury’s pressure earned the home side a scrum and the Bulls were on the score board straight away with a well worked blindside move, with Joe Mills dotting down in the corner for the first of his two sides.

Banbury added two more try’s in no time with Josh Deegan bagging a brace. Bulls dominance, was across the board, the pack were giving the backs clean go-forward ball and it was only a few handling errors that stopped the home side adding to their lead. Dunlop were unable to stop Banbury increasing their lead before half time and Skipper Ed Phillips maximised from a Dunlop error, hacked the ball on, gathered and scored in the corner. Phillips who had the kicking duties in the first half converted 3 of 5 tries to make the score 31-0 at the turnaround.

Dunlop came out after the break with more spirit and belief and, after some poor Banbury defensive work, were the first to score and make it 31-7. It took Banbury a few minutes to get back into their stride, tries were exchanged as Banbury stuttered slightly, but Dunlop’s improved play was relatively short lived and Banbury ran in 3 more tries in the closing minutes with Simon Brand, Sean Banister, Adam Walsh and Ian Isham all claiming a try a piece. Alex Stevenson made his return to the team from the bench and resumed kicking duties adding 2 conversions from his 4 attempts.

It was pleasing to see the Banbury pack deliver a strong platform from all of the afternoon’s set-pieces, and in very blustery conditions hooker Seamus O’Dwyer’s (pictured, courtesy of Banbury Guardian) accuracy at lineout time was recognised with the man of the match award. This means that each one of Saturday’s starting front row have been awarded man of the match at some point this season, showing the great improvement from last term.

Banbury should be pleased with the comprehensive 55-14 win, and remaining top of Midlands 2 West (South), but will feel they could perhaps have added more by tidying up their handling and decision making. This will be very important next Saturday as they travel away to third placed Earlsdon who are only two points behind.