Banbury made it four wins from five games when they beat Chippenham 20-23 in tricky conditions. A man of the match performance from Louis Tooth helped secured the win!

Banbury’s team was largely unchanged from last weekends impressive victory over Buckingham. Louis Tooth made his senior Bulls debut in place of the injured James Hibbert and Club Captain, Ian Isham, had recovered enough from a calf injury for a place on the bench.

The weather meant this was never going to be a high scoring game. Heavy rain plus a fair amount of wind meant it was going to a tricky game to manage for both teams.

The Bulls took the lead in the opening five minutes when Duncan Leese dived over. Chippenham sliced a crossfield kick and Dan Brady gratefully caught the ball and broke down the left wing. With one man to beat the winger passed inside for Leese who had the easiest of finishes. James Miller converted, 0-7.

Almost immediately from the restart Chippenham scored their own try. Banbury were penalised for holding on and Chippenham kicked to the corner. Liam Snape would drive over at the back of a rolling maul after good work from the forward pack. Conversion missed. 5-7.

Joe Thomas was lucky to only receive a yellow card for a swinging arm to the head of Louis Tooth after he broke through the Chippenham defence. Banbury would take advantage of the extra man though when Tom MacDonald dived over. The Bulls showed good patience to go through the phases and once the gap appeared Tom MacDonald sliced straight through it. Miller’s conversion came back off the post, 5-12.

Tommy Gray slid over after he finished off good work from Ed Phillips and Tom MacDonald. The full-back crossing for his third try of the season. Miller’s conversion would cruelly come back off the post again, 5-17.

Joe Thomas added a penalty for the home side just before the half time whistle after Banbury were penalised for offside, 8-17. At the start of the second half, James Miller also kicked a penalty to increase Banbury’s lead to 8-20 after Chippenham were punished for being off their feet at the breakdown.

Chippenham made it a one score game again when Wilf Fitzgibbon drove over at the back of a rolling maul after some good work from the forward pack. Converted, 15-20.

The Bulls would have large spells of possession and territory in the second half but couldn’t break through the Chippenham defence. James Miller kicked another penalty to make it a two-score game again after Chippenham were offside. 15-23.

Charlie Parsons would exploit a backs attacking forwards situation to score out to the left with a couple minutes left on the clock. Conversion missed, 20-23.

Banbury pushed for a try bonus point at the end, but Chippenham defended fantastically whilst also trying to turn the ball over and potentially seek a winner of their own. In the end the scores would remain the same and when both sides knocked the ball on to bring up the final whistle it rather summed up the afternoon and the conditions.

Chippenham have always been a tough team to take on and Saturday was no different. It wasn’t ever going to be a day for fast flowing rugby but both teams did the basics very well. The Bulls were frustrated not to get a try bonus point, but another win and four points added to the total could be very important by the end of the season. Louis Tooth was picked as Banbury’s man of the match. Another product of the Banbury youth section Louis grinded and worked hard for the full 80 minutes. Despite being only 18 he didn’t seem overawed by the situation and stuck to his job and the role that he needed to do throughout. Next weekend the Bulls are back at home vs Frome.

Match Stats:
Tries: Duncan Leese, Tom MacDonald and Tommy Gray
Conversions: James Miller (1)
Penalties: James Miller (2)

Speaking to Matt Goode after the game:

20-23, obviously conditions played a big part today, how are you feeling about today’s game?
“Mixed emotions really. I think we let the conditions rule the game. To get four points away, I’m happy. Disappointed not to get the try bonus point but coming here is always hard. We know that historically. To come here and get the points we did, I’m fairly happy.”

Conditions meant it was never going to be an easy win, but if Banbury want to be up near the top of the table near the end of the season it’s about picking up wins on days like today, isn’t it?
“Definitely, it’s important to pick up points on the road. For me, I need to have a look at myself. How we manage the players and the gameplans. I think tactically I didn’t get that right today. We’ll definitely be looking at that. It’s a new challenge next week, a different challenge. We know what some teams are like and how they’re going to play. We don’t know a lot about others. We thought Chippenham would play a little bit differently and I got that wrong. The boys overall, performed well.”

Looking at Louis Tooth today. He’s only 18, he’s got man of the match on his Bulls debut. That’s got to be pleasing for you, all the coaches that have worked with him, John Baker with the Colts. All the Mini and Junior coaches. With Louis, Quinten, James Hibbert all stepping up this season, as a coach you must be proud of that?
“You look at what we’ve done the last few years. The youngsters we’ve had coming through has been amazing. Louis is another product of our youth system. I’m sure in a few years he’ll go and play at a higher level. That’s exactly what we want as a club. But today, outstanding. He did everything right. To come into a tough game like this, get hit hard, get back up and make yards and do what he did today I thought he had a complete game. Makes my selection decisions difficult again. Always a good headache to have though. JB is doing a fantastic job getting these young lads ready for senior rugby and it’s exciting to see them coming through.”

Next weekend we’ve got Frome at home. We know very little about them. Is it about focusing on what Banbury do well and how we play rugby?
“We do need to focus on what we do well. Today I’ll say again my tactics weren’t right. We need to get that right for next weekend. We need to be a little bit more inventive when the weather is rubbish. I’ll take a look at the video and see how we can improve on that. Frome are unknown to us, but they picked up a really good win today. We’re back at home, and we know the energy that brings us, so we’ll be confident.”