Bodicote Park – Saturday 28th January 2017

Match report by Ed Phillips.

Banbury showed some signs of a hangover from the defeat to Newbury, as the first half saw the home side make multiple uncharacteristic errors. Banbury were first on the score board when scrum-half Ed Phillips slotted a long range wind-assisted penalty to make the score 3-0, but it was penalties they were limited to, while Old Cents scored 4 tries and locked-up their bonus point in the first half. Old Cents opening tries came through a combination of good attacking play and some weak defence from Banbury. The Bulls were staying within touching distance with the score at 12-14 through 4 penalties from Phillips, who missed with his fifth attempt which would have seen the bulls take the lead.

The game was a thriller with both teams playing good attacking rugby, and both teams made ground easily. The Bulls were guilty of chasing the game a bit more than was necessary which led to three game-changing mistakes. The first saw Phillips fail to gather a quick tap penalty with no one in front of him only yards from the line. To rub salt into the wounds, from the resulting play Banbury looked odds on to score but the final pass was intercepted and the Old Cents winger gassed the defence and ran 85 metres to score under the posts.

This increased Banbury’s frustration and in turn led them to chase the game further. Then came another hammer blow, a second interception pass, Banbury were pushing and in the last play of the half were looking to close the gap, but this time were guilty of looking for a pass that wasn’t on. This time the oppositions winger ran the 70 metres to score. While Banbury wouldn’t have deserved to lead at the break the margin in which they trailed Old Cents flattered the visitor slightly at 12-24.

It was going to be a tall order for the Bulls to get back in the game in the second half - they needed to return to building phases in attack and being a bit more patient. Their task was aided by the sin binning of the Old Cent’s inside centre and Banbury used this to gain a bit of a foothold in the game. They scored through centre Jack Briggs (pictured) after good ball retention and a well worked move from the back line, but Phillips was off target with the conversion. 17-24.

Banbury continued to press and could have been excused for thinking that they were back in the game when Ed Phillips scored. This time he collected the quick tap penalty and went over to dot down, and converted his own score for good measure. However, the Bulls leaky defence proved costly as they continued to concede and Cents kept themselves just out of touching distance.

Cash Chillvers powered over to score a late try but the missed conversion from Phillips meant the Bulls were 4 point behind at 31-35. Once again it was the visitors who scored again to seal victory.

Banbury did try hard to get a final try which would have seen them claim 2 bonus points for a fourth try and finishing within 7 points, but in was not to be - which in truth, summed up the game for Banbury.

While they won’t be happy with the performance they can at least take some positives from the match. Whilst they were clearly off the boil they did manage to stay in the game almost until the end. However, they will need to improve for next week’s Oxfordshire Cup semi-final at home to Chinnor’s 2nd XV.