DCS Stadium - Saturday 2nd September 2017

Match report by Alex Inch, action photos by Mark Rogers.

21 points from Ed Phillips and 2 Tommy Gray tries helped Banbury to a 36-18 win on the opening game of the season.

In a repeat of the last game of the previous season Witney were Banbury’s opponents this weekend. That game finished 17-15 to Banbury. Witney also finished 5th compared to Banbury’s 6th in the league last year so on paper these were 2 very even sides. A good chance for new Head Coach Matt Goode to see how the Bulls had progressed over the summer.

The game kicked off in scorching conditions, a beautiful sunny day as promised by the Media team. Matt Goode making the point in the warm up that this was going to be a test of fitness and that there would be plenty of opportunities as players tired. Banbury came out clearly pumped up, eager to get the season underway. Maybe a little too pumped up as Freddie Cracknell saw himself yellow carded after 25 seconds. Dangerously lifting a player above the horizontal on to the player’s back.

Even with a man less Banbury took the lead. Witney penalised for not rolling away. Ed Phillips continued his fine preseason form with the boot to nail a tricky kick and Banbury took an early 3-0 lead.

Freddie Cracknell was back on but the scores were soon level. Banbury’s turn to give away a penalty, not releasing at the breakdown. An easy penalty for George Lewis making it 3-3.

Ed Phillips was back on the scoreboard again before half time. Good work from the Bulls with phase after phase of play saw Banbury deep into Witney territory. Phillips eventually sniping his way over from a couple metres out just to the right of the posts. Phillips picked himself up and kicked an easy conversion to give Banbury a deserved 10-3 lead.

Witney hit back through the boot of George Lewis again. Banbury harshly penalised at the breakdown. An easy penalty for the Witney fly-half and the scores were 10-6 at halftime.

Banbury kicked off the 2nd half strongly. Ed Phillips kicking 3 penalties in the opening 20mins to give Banbury a firm advantage, 19-6. Banbury nearly extended their lead further when Matt Goode released Freddie Cracknell down the left but an incredible tackle from Alex Foggett bundled the Banbury flyer into touch. A certain try saver.

Witney punished Banbury’s missed opportunities. A nice offload out the tackle released Jack Birks who used his pace to score under the posts. Henry Lamb adding the extra’s and suddenly Witney were back within one score, 19-13.

Banbury responded almost immediately. Nice runs from Freddie Cracknell and Matthew Powell had Banbury on the front foot. Eventually the ball was thrown out wide to Tommy Gray, he threw a nice dummy to hold the Witney defence in their tracks before darting over himself from short range. The conversion attempt went wide but the Bulls were back in control, 24-13.

Banbury’s next try was the best of the game. From a scrum, the backs got the ball wide quickly, Matt Goode drawing his man before popping a lovely pass to the onrushing Freddie Cracknell. The Banbury winger showed off all his pace to swerve and sidestep his way over the try line, touching down just wide of the posts. Redemption for the mullet-man after his early yellow card. An easy conversion for Ed Phillips made it 31-13.

Banbury sealed the bonus point victory with 3 minutes left on the clock. A lovely pass from Jack Briggs pulled the Witney defence all out of position and Tommy Gray was there again to get his 2nd try of the match. Although the winger had Cracknell outside him he showed he had the pace to go it alone and touched down in the corner. A fine brace for Tommy Gray on his Banbury league debut to go with his pre-season hat-trick. Ed Phillips missed his final conversion attempt but would have been delighted with the 21 points he contributed.

Witney scored a late consolation try. Alex Foggett crashed his way over after the ball was sprayed out wide. A fine performance from the full-back, saving a try at one end and scoring at the other. Henry Lamb missed the conversion in what proved to be the final action of the game.
A dominating bonus point win for the Bulls and a fantastic start to the season.

Try scorers: Ed Phillips, Freddie Cracknell, Tommy Gray (2)

Speaking about the bonus point victory after the game, Banbury Bulls Head Coach Matt Goode said:
“If you’d have said we’d have got a bonus point victory before the game today we have taken it, Witney are a good, good side. The boys have had a great pre-season and we need to now push on to next week with a big game against Bicester.”

Speaking about the club morale:
“We’ve got a great atmosphere here, the boys that have come in have come because of the team morale. We’ve got a great ethos here and its right through the club from minis to seniors. You can see it on the pitch that we work for each other. We take pride in the badge.”

Speaking about a tight 1st half:
“We said from the start you’re not going to win in the 1st 20 minutes, it’s an 80-minute game. We left a few points out there, especially in the 1st half but it does show we’ve got things to work on. We showed are true colours for probably 60-70 minutes with some great points and great tries but there’s still ways we can improve.”

15. Joe Mills (Sponsored by DTC International)
14. Tommy Gray
13. Matt Goode
12. Jack Briggs (Sponsored by Jamie Briggs Removals & Storage)
11. Freddie Cracknell
10. Sam Stoop
9. Ed Phillips (Sponsored by P Montanaro – ITSM Consultancy)
1. Ian Isham (Captain)
2. Giles Saar
3. Pete Boulton
4. Angus Johnson
5. Nick Pratt
6. Jacob Mills
7. Matthew Powell
8. Chris Phillips

Replacements:
16. Sam Mills
17. Matt Brock
18. Dan Brady