Banbury Bulls suffered yet another league defeat on Saturday, this time at the hands of a much improved Lutterworth side who condemned the Bulls to their fifth loss in six games with a come from behind victory by 17 points to 15.

Overall the game was evenly contested and from a spectator’s point of view very entertaining as both sides used both their backs and forwards in an attempt to gain superiority over one another.

The Bulls, although playing with a slight breeze at their backs in the first half spent vast periods of the first 40 minutes camped deep in their own half and had it not been for a monumental defensive performance and a bit of lady luck, could have found themselves down by several tries early on.

However they held firm and when the opportunity to exert pressure on Lutterworth at the other end of the field presented itself the Bulls came away with the first points of the half thanks to a penalty in front of the posts which allowed fly half Darren De Bruyn to slot the goal and give the Bulls a slender 3 point lead.

Soon after the restart the Bulls were put under further pressure from the visitors and again a lack of finishing combined with some heavy defence saw them fail to register any points only to see the Bulls move the ball to the other end of the field and come away with more points.

The score nearly went to back row forward Andy Ell who ranged up in support of the back line and when given the ball 12 metres from the line looked odds on to score, however a great last ditch tackle stopped him just feet from the line and when trying to recycle the ball fly half De Bruyn was unable to control possession as he looked to scoop the ball up to score and conceded a scrum to the opposition.

Not able to clear their line very well Banbury went on the attack and from a ruck in midfield the ball was moved to the right where centre Andy Collett sucked in the defence before off loading to Sean Bannister who fended off two would be tacklers before diving in to score. The conversion attempt from wide out was missed but the Bulls had increased their lead to 8 points.

The score remained 8-0 until the half time break and with their being very little between the two sides the second half was going to be an intriguing encounter to see who could take their opportunities and take a firm grip on the game.

Ten minutes into the second half and the Bulls supporters were on their feet as centre Andy Collett powered onto the ball in midfield, beat his opposite man and the cover defence to dive in and score the Bulls second try of the match under the posts. De Bruyn’s successful conversion pushed the Bulls lead out to fifteen points and their chances of victory were looking increasingly stronger.

However a mixture of poor discipline and bad option taking at crucial times in the second half aided the visitors cause as time and again the Bulls put themselves under unnecessary pressure. Too often their kicking game let them down and enabled Lutterworth to attack from promising territorial positions while the hesitancy in making early decisions cost them dearly as on several occasions the decision to run the ball at the opposition from their own half resulted in them turning over possession.

Eventually the visitors made them pay attacking deep into the Bulls half and after several phases they found greater numbers on the left hand side to run in and score and reduce the Bulls lead to 10 points.

Again a similar pattern began to emerge with Lutterworth using the wind at their backs to great effect keeping the Bulls pinned in their own half and then feeding off the home side’s mistakes which invariably came.

Again this was the catalyst for the visitor’s second try of the game, with the Bulls hesitancy costing them dearly as they gave away possession and eventually paid the ultimate price with a converted try closing the Bulls lead to two points.

Using the wind to great effect Lutterworth kept the Bulls camped in their own half for most of the last 20 minutes of the game, but eventually Banbury worked their way into a strong attacking position and from a penalty the Bulls went to the line out 5 metres out with a great chance to stretch their lead and almost guarantee themselves victory. However the line out did not come off and the visitors were able to clear their lines and once again camp in the Bulls half.

The final score of the game which clinched victory for Lutterworth came from a line out win, snatching the Bulls throw in, from which their scrum half darted through the line out and once collared was able to off load the ball to the supporting prop who ran in to score the decisive try.

There was still time on the clock for the Bulls to snatch victory but they were unable to get close enough to attempt any assault on the Lutterworth line and eventually they ran out of time losing their second game of 2009.

Bulls coach Grant Holmes was very disappointed after the match, in which he felt his side had failed to use common sense on too many occasions and therefore put themselves under a huge amount of unnecessary pressure.

“At 15-0 up and having absorbed a huge amount of pressure on our own line, particularly in the first half, we needed to stay composed and execute the basics of the game well and choose our options better.”

“Too often we choose the wrong option and eventually we ended up paying the ultimate price. We knew that they would keep coming at us, they had missed numerous opportunities to put points on the board in the first half from close range and our best option would have been to kick the ball as far down field as we could and make them attack us from deep. With the defensive performance we were exhibiting I would have put money on us to keep them out from distance.”

“Instead our kicking options were poor, we lacked any distance and pretty much gave them back the ball in excellent attacking zones. Aside from a poor kicking effort our decision making was poor. They kicked well and had us on the back foot but instead of taking a safety first option and putting the ball in the air we attempted to run the ball from deep in our own half. I don’t condone this type of play if done in the right situation but on Saturday individual players opted to run the ball back when without support and we invariably turned over possession.”

“In terms of performance from the guys it seemed like a different side than the one that played the week before. We were hungry for it and flew into everything on defence and against a side much better than last weeks opponents.”

“We are getting ourselves back on the right track, sure we find ourselves in a bit of a slump at the moment and in need of a much required morale boosting win. If we can take the same attitude into this weekends fixture, be more sharp minded in our decision making and improve our kicking game we will give ourselves a fantastic chance of victory.”