The Banbury Bulls poor run of form continued on Saturday with their third league loss in as many games in 2009, this time at the hands of near neighbours Towcester who ran out very comfortable winners by 36 points to 0.

Having won the early season fixture at home the Bulls travelled to Towcester ever hopeful of stopping their run of losses by picking up a much needed victory, however as the game unfolded the likelihood of victory became increasingly unlikely as Towcester, unbeaten since these two sides met back in October put the visitors under pressure from the first whistle.

Playing into a stiff breeze and up the hill in the first half the Bulls main priority was to dog-out the first 40 minutes and hope to turn around at half time within striking distance of their opponents. The early exchanges saw the home side play a good tactical game by putting the ball high in the air and letting the wind take it deep into Banbury territory where the visitors had little option but to try and make as much distance into the breeze as possible. This allowed Towcester to gain ample possession inside the Bulls half of the field.

Unfortunately for the Bulls they lost their loose head prop at the very first scrum of the match and five minutes later were on the receiving end of a push over try which gave the home side an early 7 point lead.

Once again using the conditions to their advantage the home side pushed Banbury back towards their own line and having won possession the Towcester fly half put a cross field kick into the corner which resulted in their right wing winning the race to the ball to score and stretch their lead to 12 points.

The second quarter of the game saw Banbury start to play with more continuity and at times they looked threatening only for a simple error or wrong option to halt their progress, but with little time left on the clock till half time the Bulls would have been pretty pleased to hold the home side to 12 points knowing they would play with the elements in their favour after the break.

However with the Bulls trying to run the ball from inside their own half a mistimed pass saw the ball intercepted for Towcester to score under the posts and take a handy 19 point lead into half time.

Still confident of being able to turn the game around the Bulls second half could have got off to a worse start with the ball being knocked on from the kick off just 10 metres from their own line. After withstanding some pressure on their line the Bulls got a much needed turnover and a chance to clear their line, however the pass back to fly half Darren De Bruyn bounced in front of him resulting in a knock on in goal and a five metre scrum to Towcester, from which after a couple of attempts they went over to score and stretch their lead to 26-0.

A penalty and another converted try before the three quarter mark made the game completely safe for the home side at 36-0, however the Bulls continued to chance their arm, but to no avail as a combination of some good defence and below par execution of the basics let them down too often.

Banbury Bulls coach Grant Holmes was frustrated after the match as his side failed to exert enough pressure on the opposition.

“I certainly do not believe we were 36 points worse than them, in fact for a small portion of the game we played the better of the rugby with our forwards and backs combining well, but again we failed to make it count by failing to keep the pressure on until the points came our way.”

“We are very guilty of letting teams off the hook far too easily, we created some good chances but failed to hold onto the ball long enough to really put the opposition under enough pressure to make them crack.”

“On the other hand our opponents did make us pay. They kicked well in the first half, put us under a lot of pressure and scored the points when they were on offer.”

“It was unfortunate to give that try away in the closing minutes of the first half. I think had we gone into half time trailing by 12 points instead of 19 the mindset of the boys may have been different. We were still confident of clawing back the deficit but then to concede so soon after the break due to two poor handling errors cost us any chance of a revival.”

“There is no doubt that we are currently struggling to find our form and when you are in the middle of a form slump nothing seems to go your way. I think the boys are feeling the pressure a bit, we are all wondering when the next win is going to come our way but you don’t go from being a good side (top four potential) to a poor side over night. We are a skilful side who just lacks a bit of confidence and self belief at the moment but all it takes is for a minor thing like the bounce of the ball going our way and the entire momentum will start falling our way.”

“We talked a lot about drawing a line under the past few weeks, to concentrate on the positives that came out of our game and look ahead. We can not afford to dwell on what has happened for too long, sure there are lessons to be learned but we must refocus our attention on the fixtures ahead and be confident that our game is good enough to win us games.”