Match reporting by Chris Phillips.

Hanbury Road - Saturday 20th September 2014.

Tom Mawle came into the front row, Doug Backhouse replaced Matt Brock at lock and Simon Brand made his first appearance of the season at number 8. In the back line Lionel Byrne replaced the injured Jimmy Manley, with Alex Gandy and Carl Daniels coming into the back three.

In a game that never really flowed for either side, Banbury conceded the first try. After stopping one driving maul in the corner, they did so illegally and the second attempt was successful as Droitwich’s Conda got the ball down. A tough conversion was kicked for 7-0.
Banbury tried to get a foothold in the game and started to gather momentum but another piece of ill-discipline lead to a penalty in midfield duly converted by Scott-Walker of the hosts for 10-0.

Both sides had attacks but found resolute defence in the 22. The next score was Banbury’s, a strong 5 metre scrum laid on the platform for a backline move allowing Josh Deegan to power over. Ed Phillips converted the try and followed that up with a penalty to level the scores at 10-10.

For the 2nd week running Banbury starting playing more of the rugby but the final clinical edge was missing as various breaks ultimately lead to nothing. With the game nearing half time the play was becoming scrappy with neither team managing to make the most of possession. The hosts made a couple of dangerous looking attacks which were repelled by a solid Bulls defence. They then looked to shift the ball wide to change the point of attack, a loose pass was picked off by Josh Deegan, who won the foot race for his and Banbury’s second try, converted by Phillips, the score at half time was 10-17.

The second half started much the way the first had finished, with each side attacking but not making the most of the ball in the red zone.
Banbury then sparked into life. Daniels broke the line from deep slipping a couple of tackles before offloading to Brand. After powering deep into the 22 the ball was recycled quickly and 4 phases later was shipped wide to allow Daniels to go over in the corner to finish what he had started. A tough conversion missed to make it 10-22 to the Bulls.

A period of stalemate ensued as the majority of the rugby was played in the middle third. Each side giving away too many penalties and allowing the pressure to be relieved.

Micky Fox received a yellow card for repeated infringements and with Mawle already off injured Pratt moved into the front row. Droitwich now looked to put pressure on Banbury who had to put up a strong defensive performance, epitomised by the hard work and tackle-count of man of the match Sam Mills.

Eventually the pressure told and Ell was yellow carded for bringing down a maul. There was now a period of confusion as Droitwich called for a scrum before realising Banbury only had two front rowers on the pitch (with one injured and two in the sin bin). The ref called for Fox to be replaced in the sin bin by another Banbury player for the last 30 sec of his yellow card to allow the scrum to be completed. After one reset a penalty try was awarded and converted to take the scores to 17-22 with a minute left on the clock. Banbury held out for the last minute, to take the victory and go top of the league.

All three Banbury sides take on Leamington next week with the Bulls in their first home league fixture of the season. The Lions 2nd XV travel to Leamington whilst the Wanderers 3rd XV complete the schedule at home.