Bodicote Park - Saturday 1st October 2016

Match report by Ed Phillips, action photos by Jessica Rogers.

The game started in bright sunshine and at a frantic pace. Newbury received the kick off and started as they meant to go on, the forwards producing clean quick ball and the backs moving the ball slickly with pace. Banbury struggled to cope with the speed of the game initially, but scrambled well on numerous occasions to keep Newbury from crossing the line. Eventually pressure told and Banbury found themselves 7-0 behind. Newbury then missed a kickable penalty and Banbury stuttered into life.

A chance went begging before Banbury got on the score board through Sam Stoop. Stoop started the move with a deep kick that wasn’t gathered cleanly by the Newbury full back, Banbury took a quick lineout through man-of-the-match Jack Briggs and recycled the ball, it was spread wide Stoop eventually went over the line unchallenged after Josh Deegan off loaded out of contact. With stand-in captain Ed Phillips adding the extras to level the scores at 7 all. Like Newbury, The Bulls were awarded a penalty soon after scoring and Phillips made no mistake, 10-7 to the host’s. Although the half ended with Banbury in the lead they had to survive another scare. On reflection Newbury probably edged the first half but it had the makings of an exciting game.

Banbury came out the stronger in the second half, and added to their lead through the boot of Phillips, making the score 13-7 and Banbury started to believe they were the better side. This belief was crushed just moments later when they failed to gather the resulting kick off and Newbury were over the line and in the lead following the conversion. This had a detrimental effect on the game from the Bulls point of view. Newbury got their tails up and Banbury failed to deal with the hard running line from the visitors. And they added two more converted tries that were a result of Banbury’s soft defence.

With the score now 13-28 to Newbury, the heavens opened and it made chasing the game even harder for Banbury. Newbury played the conditions perfectly, kicking behand the home side and making them work from deep in their own half.

With just a few minutes left on the clock Banbury gained some momentum and a string of penalties saw them march up the field. In the process Newbury were reduced to 13 men through two yellow cards. The first to their tight head prop for dangerous play when clearing at the break down and the second for the scrum half throwing the ball away after a penalty was conceded. Although Cash Chilvers crossed for his first try in Banbury colours and Phillips added the conversion, that was to be the final play of the game so there was no time left for Banbury to get the point the needed to gain a losing bonus point.

The final score was 20-28. Banbury will look back at missed tackles in midfield and how easily they coughed up the ball in the oppositions 22 as the major reasons they lost this game, but it is important they draw from the many positives in their game against a solid Newbury side.