Banbury Bulls slumped to their second defeat of the league season on Saturday when beaten by a very physical Vipers side by 36 points to 29.

Off the back of three straight league victories the Bulls travelled to the Leicester club in confident mood, having seen their opponents win just once in four matches but any thoughts of an easy ride were soon dispelled as the home side scored an unconverted try within the first two minutes of the start.

From the kick off the ball was taken in well by the Bulls forwards and once released to the backs a long kick deep into the opposition territory found the touch line. However from the line out the home side went wide and found space on the outside and made good yards. Two penalties in quick succession saw them move to within 10 metres of the Bulls line and from an ensuing ruck the home sides prop forward crashed over to score.

The Bulls replied almost immediately taking the ball deep into the opposition territory where a missed penalty almost turned into a try to wing David Taylor. Taylor chased the kick and won possession when the ball fell just metres from the try line. From the scrum that followed captain Simon Brand took the ball from the base and crashed his way over in the tackle. The successful conversion gave the Bulls a narrow 7-5 lead.

Soon after the Bulls were on the score sheet again, this time the ball was sent wide out into the backs and left wing Andrew Collett raced up the touch line before passing the ball back inside to the supporting Andrew Lace who raced over to score near the posts. His successful conversion gave the Bulls a 14-5 lead.

Bulls dominated the next 15 minutes of the game keeping the home side firmly in their own half but were unable to convert this pressure into points and after losing possession near the halfway line were punished as the home side went onto the attack, brushing off would be tacklers before a series of off loads resulted in a converted try to close the gap to 14-12.

This is how the score remained until the half time break.

The second half saw the Bulls start strongly making a couple of surges into Vipers territory but all too often some poor decision making brought the move to a halt and on two occasions the Bulls managed to turn over possession and from the ensuing counter attacks from Vipers the results were devastating for Banbury as they conceded two very soft tries. Both poor ball retention and very lacklustre defence allowed these two tries to be scored. Both tries were converted and then Banbury’s chances of victory were dented when a penalty kick was converted to an extra three points to give the home side a handy 15 point lead.

Soon after Banbury were able to cut that lead to 12 points with a penalty to Andrew Lace and then from the restart the ball was spread wide to Collett who again raced down the touch line, drew the last line of defence before switching play with Lace who ran in to score his second try of the day and again reduce the home sides advantage, this time down to 7 points.

With the Banbury scrum going backwards at a rate of knots the home side enjoyed turning over possession at the set piece and confining the Bulls to play rugby in their own half and when a penalty kick from near in front went to the home side the Bulls hopes of snatching a victory looked gone. However the penalty attempt missed keeping the score to 7 points and Banbury were still in with a chance.

Some strong pressure on the Bulls try line by the Vipers forward pack resulted in them crossing over the try line twice but both times desperate defence kept the ball off the ground, however it was third time lucky for Vipers who crossed for that all important try. The conversion attempted sailed between the posts and Vipers looked set for victory at 36 points to 22.

Banbury however were not done and within a few minutes scored a converted try of there own. Turning over possession near halfway allowed the Bulls to surge deep into the home sides half of the field and when the ball was released to Jon Paton he found a gap in the defence to cross over to score his first try for the Bulls first team. The successful conversion closed the gap to 7 points again and with only minutes left on the clock Banbury’s best result could only be a draw. However the home side played their rugby in the right half of the field and managed to close out the game.