The Banbury Bulls made it two wins from three games in their Midlands Three East (South) league division on Saturday with an away victory over Cambridgeshire side Huntingdon.

Renowned in the past for not having a good away win ratio Saturday’s victory in their first away fixture of the season was a huge boost to the Bulls as they look to claw their way up the league table.

Banbury started the match much the brighter of the two sides and dominated both possession and territory for the vast majority of the first half and it would be fair to say should have gone into the break with a much greater half time advantage than the 12 point buffer they did have.

Early in the half the Bulls created three or four prime scoring opportunities only to see the last pass not go to hand, the handling being poor or in fact the wrong option being taken and it looked like it was going to be one of those days that potentially could have got away from them.

However constant pressure on the home side eventually took its toll and midway through the half the Bulls registered their first points of the game. After some handy work from the backline took the Bulls into the Huntingdon twenty-two captain Simon Brand carried the ball on taking several would be tacklers with him and with quick ball presented to scrum half Darren De Bruyn he darted through a half gap and after being dragged down just metres from the line was able to off-load the ball to the supporting Chris Phillips who crossed over to score. The conversion missed but the Bulls finally had points on the board at 5-0.

Ten minutes later and the Bulls camped deep in Huntingdon territory and from several quick phases scrum half De Bruyn again darted through a half gap but this time the tackling was poor and he managed to brush off two defenders and run in to score under the posts. The successful conversion from fullback Andrew Lace stretched the Bulls lead to 12-0.

There was no further scoring in the half with the Bulls on top but no doubt disappointed that their lead was not at least double at the break.

The early stages of the second half saw a bit of a role reversal with the home side coming out knowing they needed to raise their game to have any hope of coming from behind for a victory while the Bulls seemed to take their foot off the gas as if expecting the game to fall their way because of their dominance in the first half.

The visitors were in for a shock as the home side came back at them and 15 minutes into the half the scores were tied up at 12 all with the home side scoring two tries in quick succession and the Bulls looking in some trouble.

However to their credit the Bulls regrouped and dominated territory for the final quarter of the game and in that time managed to cross over for another two tries. The first went to captain Simon Brand who was on hand to take a final pass from De Bruyn who had hit the line at pace and managed to off-load in the tackle for Brand to crash over in the tackle.

The second try went to centre John Preston in what was potentially his last game for the club before heading to Exeter. Some good lead up work from the forwards allowed for space to be created wide on the left hand side and when the ball was swung out to wing Andrew Collett he beat his opposite number and hared off down the touch line. As the cover defence approached he threw a long ball back inside to Preston who juggled it before running in under the posts untouched. The conversion gave the Bulls a 24-12 lead and then with less than 10 minutes to go Lace kicked an all important penalty to stretch the lead out to 15 points and the game was safe.

Bulls coach Grant Holmes was very pleased with the performance and indeed the result.

“In my four seasons at the club we have always had trouble securing away wins so to get one in the bag first up is very satisfying and against opposition like Huntingdon who are always a tough side to play makes it all the more important,” said Holmes.

“We started well and completely dominated them in the first half but with very little reward. It wasn’t through a lack of trying, we created numerous opportunities throughout the half that we failed to convert and that was a disappointing aspect for me. Instead of being 12 points up at the break, the game should have been won by half time with a 30 point lead.”

He added, “If there is anything to be learnt from that first half is that we have to become clinical and finish off the chances we create.” It could have proved costly as they came back at us for 15-20 minutes at the beginning of the second half to level the scores and had we had gone on to lose the game, that would have be criminal.”

Holmes was pleased once again with the impact of the players coming into the side. There were a couple of changes to the line up from the weekend before and the players that stepped up performed very well.

“Darren De Bruyn came in at scrum half, scored one try and had a hand in two others while also winning a lot of turn over ball for us. Chris Phillips, back in the side after a week’s absence had a busy game in the loose and fullback Andrew Lace came in for the injured Peter Flemming and performed very well in his first start for the side.”

“There is competition for places in several positions and that is very healthy and gives an added incentive to those vying for a place to perform. A bit more competition in other positions would be welcomed to add that extra bit of spice but at the moment we are moving in the right direction.”

“The key to success is to never become complacent and no matter how well you perform you should always strive to do better. Back to back wins doesn’t make for a successful season, we have a long way to go and some very tough matches coming up so we must stay focussed and play every match as though it is going to be our toughest and bring the best out in each other.”

This weekend the Bulls return to Bodicote Park where they will entertain Old Newtonians, kick off for the match is 3pm.