The Banbury Bulls maintained their climb up the Midlands Three East South league table with their third consecutive league win and fourth in a row in all competitions with a comfortable 24-0 victory at Aylestone St James.

Travelling away from home after two excellent performances in front of their home supporters, the Bulls were mindful of their away form and the need to raise their game away from Bodicote Park.

Playing the first half up the slight slope and into a very stiff breeze the Bulls knew they had to graft out the first 40 minutes and hope to restrict their hosts to as few a points as possible to keep them in touch when turning around with the elements in their favour, but another solid defensive display kept Aylestone from crossing the Bulls try line, with their only chance of points being two first half penalties which both missed their target.

The Bulls on the other hand took two very good first half chances, created through some determined work up front where they started to punch in behind the Aylestone defence creating quick ball for the backs to utilise and exploit the space provided. Both first half tries where similar in their execution with the beneficiary on both occasions being right wing Ashley Woodward who showed good pace and strength to cross over to score. Into the strong breeze Darren De Bruyn was unable to convert the extra points but the Bulls enjoyed a 10 point lead.

The later moments of the first half saw the Bulls kept inside their own territory as the home side used the wind to good effect, but with very much a one dimensional game of having their forwards pick and drive from the base of every ruck or bringing their strong running centre back towards the forwards the likelihood that they were going to really test the Banbury defence was remote.

Turning around at half time with a 10 point lead and now with the elements in their favour the Bulls were odds on favourites to go on and win this one by some margin.

The wind was used to good effect when it was necessary but the Bulls style of running rugby was always going to see them take on their opposition with ball in hand. They produced some nice touches in the second half however far too often they lost their shape with too many individual moments instead of sticking to the game plan of creating phases and utilising quick ball out wide.

The first points of the half came through Bulls captain Simon Brand who once again showed his strength and speed handing off several would be tacklers as he charged towards the try line, while carrying two Aylestone defenders over the line as he touched down to score. De Bruyn added the extra two points for a 17-0 lead.

The Bulls now had a strangle hold on the game and kept the home side camped in their own half for most of the second half, forcing them to run the ball from deep. The only attacking moments of any promise from the home side came midway through the half when their forwards trademark pick and drive actually saw them gain about 20 metres and for one of the very few times in the game they passed the ball wide were some nice footwork saw them move into Bulls territory. However the Bulls strong defensive display contained the opponents and eventually they were able to win turnover ball and send Aylestone deep into their own territory once again.

Keeping pressure on the opposition saw the Bulls turn over several scrum put ins and from one of these Brand charged off the back of a scrum and headed into the Aylestone backline defence. On hitting contact he managed to off load the ball to centre Dave Taylor who crashed over to score. Again De Bruyn added the extras and at 24-0 and 15 minutes to play the game was safe.

The Bulls were not finished and their best phase of play in the half saw them go on the attack again and with quick ball released out wide Woodward found himself with no one in front of him and dashed in to score what looked like the Bulls fifth try of the match just as the cover defence got to him. However the referee claimed he was unsighted and could therefore not award the try.

The game ended there with the Bulls pleased with another solid performance which included their second clean sheet in a row.

Bulls coach Grant Holmes was satisfied with his side’s performance if not a bit frustrated that they didn’t maintain their structure throughout which he believes would have yielded them more points.

“We were a little bit flat compared to the previous two games but in saying that it is always nice to travel away from home and pick up a good win.”

“We played well in patches but too often we lost our shape, did not play to our game plan and that probably cost us a few more tries. Perhaps we felt it was easy out there and therefore we became a bit individualistic instead of playing to a pattern.”

“Defensively I was very pleased, we were strong in the tackle and on the very few occasions when they looked a little threatening our swarming cover defence was very, very good. To hold the opposition to nil for the second week in a row is very pleasing as we have been guilty in the past of cracking under a certain amount of pressure.”

“The confidence in the players is very evident, there is plenty of self belief within the camp and the guys are looking forward to the remainder of the season which includes a cup semi final and league games against the top two sides which will give us an indication of just how far we have come over the past two months.”

“We have some very tough decisions to make with regards to team selection, there is competition for places in several positions and guys who have stepped up to fill in for injured or unavailable regular first team players have performed very well. It gives us selectors a bit of a headache but it’s a headache gladly accepted in comparison to the ones we’ve had in the past when we were scratching around to put a team out.”

“This weekend we have a tough ask to keep our winning streak going, we have to play our catch up league game on Saturday at home to Vipers and then back up on Sunday with our county cup semi final again at home to Witney. It is far from ideal for us but with our place in Midlands Three secured we can now afford to put the cup game ahead of the league fixture in terms of importance. I have been badgering all the players to make themselves available for this weekend so we can limit the number of players who have to play two games on the weekend and enable us to put out two very competitive sides and hopefully we can come up with two good victories. It won’t be easy but it is very much within us.”