Banbury travelled with several forced changes in the forwards to Dunlop who have had 2 promotions and a relegation in the last 3 years as well as reaching the Senior Vase Final at Twickenham, so as expected they were a well organised side. This didn’t stop Banbury having the better of the opening exchanges.
Despite only seeing the ball twice in the first 15 minutes, Banbury made the most of possession and continued their attacking form with two well worked tries. The first came when Dunlop’s backline rushed and the Bulls fly half slid the ball behind the centres to the oncoming Joubert who broke through with ease before stepping his opposite man and cruising home underneath the posts and added the extras to his own try. The second came with a blind side move off the back of the scrum, veteran Will Brooks, standing in at Number 8, sucked in the opposition back row and found his skipper who passed to the perfectly timed run of Joubert. Due to his earlier try, he attracted the attention of two Dunlop defenders leaving David Taylor in space on the outside. Taylor gathered the ball and made his way down the touch line dealt with the covering defender and put Banbury 12-0 up. Joubert went close with the conversion attempt, but the ball side just wide.

For the rest of the half Banbury would be reduced to scraps of possession, often only seeing the ball deep in their own 22 and only being able to clear their lines. Banbury held out until 25 minutes gone when they were finally warn down with impressive phase play from the home side. Quick ball resulted in Banbury on the back foot and the opposition tight head and skipper crashed over, with the extras being added. Banbury were to concede again in the first half and it was much in the same style, as the phases built up the Banbury defence became stretched and Dunlop took advantage. Banbury needed to get their hands on the ball and play some rugby of their own, but this was not the case and despite the strong start by the Bulls they conceded a third time before the break and went in 21-12 down.

Banbury needed to come out of the blocks flying after the break but instead they took some time to feel their way into the game, having said this the defence was much improved and the Bulls managed to stop the big Dunlop ball carriers making as much yardage as they had in the first half. Banbury eventually built some confidence from this and started to play some rugby. The travelling support urged Banbury on as ever and as Banbury came closer to scoring Dunlop looked more and more uncomfortable. The Bulls entered the Dunlop 22 and after a few phases the ball was passed to the short side and Joubert got his hand on the ball, he brushed off one tackle, this gave him the taste for the white wash. Three or four more defender tried to tackle the in-form Banbury Fullback but without success and he powered his way through the defence and over the line to score, but this time failed to add the extras.

Banbury continued to build the pressure and Dunlop’s penalty count started to rise, eventually the home side infringed just inside their own their own half, Joubert slotted the 3 pointer and left Banbury trailing by 1 point with ten minutes left on the clock. This brought the best out of the home side who came back strongly, but Banbury managed to hold out and the game was very much in the balance with the Bulls having a number of line outs and scrums in the opposition half. However it was Dunlop who were to break the deadlock and got over in the corner to make the score 26-20, and an impressive kicking display from the Dunlop scrum half was confirmed when he slotted the kick from the touchline. Banbury were still fighting for 2 points though, as if they scored again they would receive both the losing and fourth try bonus points. To do this, they were forced to attack from deep in their own 22 and captain Phillips tried to force a pass from the deck. Unfortunately it didn’t find his intended target, Dunlop went on to gather the ball and increase their lead in a score line that in the end flattered the hosts. Banbury deserved more out of the game, but had to come away with nothing

Banbury will travel away to Leighton Buzzard next week in the second round of the Intermediate Cup, and with several players returning they will hope to get a more favourable result.