Photos by Simon Grieve

Banbury moved up to third place in the league with an important 45-14 victory vs Royal Wootton Bassett. Two tries from Jack Briggs and a man of the match performance from Sam Stoop helped Banbury to victory.

Following last week’s contest, the Bulls lost three key players in Pete Boulton, Ed Berridge and Matt Goode to injury. There was some good news though as Tommy Gray surprised everyone when he made himself available when initially being told he’d be out for a month.

Banbury flew out the blocks, racing into an early 7-0 lead. Nick Pratt threw a brilliant offload to play in Jack Briggs who made weaved his way through the RWB backline before stretching out over the line, just to the right of the posts. Duncan Leese converted. Banbury 7 RWB 0.

The Bulls went further ahead after a mistake from RWB. Sam Stoop kicked behind and the RWB players fumbled the ball a couple times before Callum Horne picked up the ball and dived over the line. Leese made it 2 from 2 with the extras. 14-0.

Banbury punished another error for their third try. Finding themselves 5 metres from their own try line, within 30 seconds Banbury were scoring under the posts at the opposite end. From the scrum, Sam Stoop put boot to ball. The RWB backs attempted to come back at the Banbury line but Joe Mills intercepted a loose pass before offloading to Tommy Gray. Gray broke into the RWB 22 before unselfishly passing to Dan Brady who sprinted his way from out wide to score under the posts. Leese converted. 21-0.

RWB scored a try of their own before half time. Some good play had them in the Banbury 22 before Joe Pettit expertly offloaded to Sam Davies who touched down out to the left. Thomas Fieldsend added the extras to make it 21-7 at half time.

Banbury were back at it in the second half. Matthew Powell switched to number 8 for the beginning of the second half, meaning he’s played at 6, 7, 8, 12 and 14 this season. He’s like the James Milner of rugby. From a scrum close to the halfway line Matthew Powell burst off the back and could maybe have gone all the way himself. Selflessly Powell elected to pass to Tommy Gray who had an easy run to the line. Leese kept up his 100% record with the boot to convert. Banbury 28 RWB 7.

RWB responded almost immediately from kick off. Tom Fieldsend threw a perfectly timed pass to play in Charlie Hix who then sprinted his way through the cover defence to score under the posts. Fieldsend converted, 28-14.
Duncan Leese was yellow carded for a high tackle although the card should have gone to Sam Stoop who was in fact the offending player. Duncan insistent after the game he was innocent and Stoopy adding no comment…

Banbury introduced Tom Eyston and Ed Phillips as substitutes, congratulations to Tom who was making his debut for Banbury. Ed Phillip’s first job was to kick a penalty for Banbury after RWB were penalised for holding on. Ed Phillips nailed the kick to make it 31-14.

With Banbury back up to 15 they extended the lead with a try from Sam Stoop. Ian Isham set up a rolling maul and the ball worked its way back to Sam Stoop who gleefully touched down out to the left. The backs looked delighted, the forwards upset long into the evening. Ed Phillips converted, 38-14.

The Bulls had time for one more try before full time. Sam Stoop turning provider this time, delaying a lovely pass to play in Jack Briggs who burst through the RWB line to score close to the posts. Ed Phillips converted to make it a 100% day kicking for the Banbury boys. 45-14.

The full-time whistle followed shortly after. A great performance from Banbury. RWB battled all game and showed great endeavour to try and score from anywhere on the pitch. Sam Stoop was selected as Banbury’s man of the match, a try and an assist capped a great overall performance.

Speaking to Head Coach, Matt Goode, after the game:

45-14, we built it up as the biggest game of the season and the boys certainly delivered out there on the pitch didn’t they? “I thought we grew in confidence from start to finish. We started well, maybe a 10-minute spell where they scored a couple tries, we weren’t great, but for the majority of the game we played really well.”

Bit of a scrappy first half but that second half was great, did that please you most? “21-7 at half time against the wind was good. Let’s not forget they were 3rd in the league. We had a couple things to sort out at half time but when we came out, we were dominate. I thought the boys were excellent. Sometimes the score board flatters you a bit but I thought we thoroughly deserved that today. 1-18 were all fantastic.”

You’ve gone ahead of RWB in the table now, a couple other results and you could be up to third, it’s really going to go right to the end of the season this playoff hunt isn’t it? “Definitely, lets see how the other games go, we can only focus on ourselves and control what we do on the pitch. We need to stay focused and make sure we keep getting 5 points every week. We’ll see where that leaves us at the end of the season. Beating third place was a massive step for us though.”

Back to county cup action this Friday with a semi final vs Bicester, you looking to put a strong side out for that one? “We’ll put out a strong side, we need to, we can’t take Bicester for granted. There are some players I want to see come in and play. We’ll have to check availabilities, to be fair with the quality in our 1’s, 2’s and 3’s whoever is selected we’ll have a strong side out there. I’m looking forward to watching the boys, it’s at home so come on down this Friday.”