The long journey to Huntingdon was never going to be an easy one for title-chasing Banbury as the Bulls played this rearranged Midlands 2 West (South) fixture. Huntingdon had been putting in some impressive performances in recent weeks and Banbury knew this was going to be a much sterner test than the corresponding home fixture, where the Bulls had notched up 50 points.

With an unchanged pack for the third week in a row the Bulls were confident that their forwards would be a tough challenge for anyone. It was in the backs that further changes were forced on coach Grant Holmes, who once again started at scrum-half. Pete Flemming started this match where we had ended the previous week’s game, at fly-half in place of the injured Pete Papenfus and Guy Sturla returned to inside centre.

The match kicked off at Huntingdon’s Racecourse ground, a much better venue than previous years where they had made use of a school pitch, with a stiff wind blowing diagonally across the hard but rather narrow pitch. Banbury were playing against the slight slope but with a small wind advantage and the initial cagey passages of play seemed to set the story for much of the half. Huntingdon regularly looked to use the boot to put Banbury on the back foot, but the Bulls were often able to gather the ball and return it with interest through the boot of Sturla.
And it was with increasing territory that Banbury started to turn up the pressure on the home side defence. The efficient Huntingdon line-out responded well to the conditions and regularly won safe front ball to allow them to clear their lines, but the same was not true of the scrum where hooker Liam Stratford repeatedly took the ball against the head. One such steal on half way allowed Number 8 Simon Brand to break off and take the ball into the Huntingdon half. With just the blind side winger to beat and skipper Sean Bannister outside him, Brand’s pass was poor giving his skipper no chance and the opportunity went begging.

The Huntingdon defence was proving to be a tough nut to crack and after a number of strong runs, led by Sturla, were met with some equally strong tackling it was left to the boot of winger Mike Smith to get Banbury on the scoreboard. Offside in the Huntingdon backs was the penalty and Smith slotted the kick to give the Bulls a 3-0 lead.

With the few Huntingdon breaks being effectively nullified before they could get into striking range of the Bulls try-line, the visitors were able to continue their pressure in the home sides 22. However a combination of some poor handling and some stalwart Huntingdon defence again prevented Banbury from crossing the whitewash.

A 3-0 lead for Banbury was not much to show for their territory and possession and when Huntingdon broke wide and kicked through into the Bulls in-goal area it was a foot race for the ball. However winger Jed Boyle was aware to the threat and smartly dotted the ball down to end the one real chance that Huntingdon had in the first half.

The second half began with the Bulls therefore holding a slender lead and it was not long before Smith was able to extend that lead to 6-0 with another penalty. However Huntingdon responded well and midway through the second half took the opportunity to show what they could do in attack. A number of Banbury penalty indiscretions gave the home side the chance to kick for the corner in an attempt to use their good lineout as the platform for an attack. A good catch and set 10 yards out was being mauled slowly towards the Bulls line when the referee’s whistle blew. Prop Andrew Gilbert was singled out and shown a red card for punching, despite his protestations that he was simply trying to free himself from the maul.

With Banbury now down to 14 men and missing one of the cornerstones of their pack, Huntingdon looked to strike and again set up a rolling maul from the line out. This time they were able to drive over the line and Banbury conceded only their second try in 6 matches. The Huntingdon kicker was on target with the conversion and the home side now had the lead 7-6. This was going to be a true test of Banbury’s credentials.

And the response was swift. Just minutes after losing the lead, Banbury put together their best passage of play of the game. The ball was quickly moved wide right from a Banbury scrum and several quick phases later the ball moved back left. The speed of the recycling had left the Huntingdon defence disorganised for the first time in the game and some good passing set up a miss-match for Bannister. Rounding the prop opposite him he barrelled over to score his 14th try of the season and regain Banbury’s lead 11-7.

However the Bulls were just not able to reproduce this passage of play again and Huntingdon were just not able to get the field position they needed to finish off their attacks. Good defence from both sides seemed to dominate much of the remainder of the match and Banbury were glad to kick the ball out and win the game.

Player-coach Grant Holmes said: “I was very pleased with the response of the guys once we were reduced to 14 men. He added: “Ultimately at this stage of the season for us it’s all about winning and we achieved our objective, just not in the style we had hoped for.”

With just 3 league fixture remaining, Banbury need just 5 points to take the league title and will resume their league action a week on Saturday as they travel to Old Newtonians on 27th March.