The visitors were looking to avenge their defeat at the hands of Banbury earlier in the season, whilst the Bulls were looking to give their home fans a performance and result to be proud of. Led again by skipper Eddie Phillips, Banbury would be looking to unleash their dangerous backline to put the Sils under pressure.

With a strong breeze at the backs of the visitors they were quick to pin the Bulls back in their own half with some intelligent kicking. As the territory and possession mounted up in the early stages of the match in favour of the visitors, it was perhaps no surprise when they took the lead through a penalty goal. And whilst most of the Sils attacks were dealt with admirably by the Banbury defence there were a number of occasions where the visitors looked dangerous after stringing together a number of very quick, clean phases. Then with 25 minutes gone, Banbury found themselves defending a 5-metre scrum close to their own line, only to be penalised again. The Sils scrum-half was quick with the tap and popped the ball to his onrushing forwards, where second row Law was on hand to score. The conversion was successful and the Bulls not only found themselves 8-0 down, but the defensive effort had taken its toll and the home side had been forced to use all their subs by the half hour mark!

One of the casualties had been skipper Phillips and it was up to the rest of the team to dig deep and force their way back into the game. This they duly started to do with some good kicking from fly-half Jed Boyle and strong running from forwards and backs alike, and it was Boyle who was to conjour up the Banbury response. After a scrappy midfield scrum was tidied up, Boyle found a glimpse of open space ahead of him and broke through the momentarily wrong-footed Sils defence. As he rounded the full-back the scrambling defence caught up with him, but he was able to feed the ball out to the supporting flanker Dan Boys who scampered in for a try. The conversion went wide, but the Bodicote Park men were back in the game at 5-10, a scoreline which remained unchanged until half-time.

After the restart Banbury were quick to apply the pressure and after some ill-advised ‘advice’ to the referee by the Sils pack was penalised, Boyle slotted over the kick to bring Banbury to within two points at 8-10. But just ten minutes later, Sils extended their lead again as Boys went from hero to villain, conceding the kickable penalty and earning a yellow card in the process. Banbury battled well, especially amongst the pack who were a man down and were to concede just another penalty goal as they looked to attack from their own half. With the score now at 8-16, Banbury tried to up the tempo of their own play but were repeatedly foiled illegally by the visitors. The referee decided enough was enough and showed the second yellow card of the match to the Sils scrum-half and during this time Banbury were able to claw back a further penalty by Boyle to bring them to within five points.

As the game entered into the final 10 minutes, both Sils and Banbury fans were treated to a nail-biting finish. Sils had a try disallowed for an off-the-ball push as their winger chased through his own grubber and Banbury weren’t able to hold onto possession long enough to threaten for the try that might end Sils promotion chances. The match finished 11-16 to the visitors in what had been a highly entertaining game for both players and spectators.

Banbury Bulls play their final league match of the 2011/12 season away at Upton-on-Severn this coming Saturday.