Bracknell braved difficult conditions to take an away victory at Marlborough.
The opening exchanges were in Marlborough territory and after 10 minutes Bracknell had a stroke of good fortune – or genius – one of the two.
Alex Frame, with the 10 shirt on for the first time to accommodate Lewis Franklin at nine, chipped a ball over the top and while the Bracknell touchline “experts” were in the process of criticising the tactic the Marlborough full back fumbled his catch.
Bracknell played the advantage and then forced a penalty from the slightly startled defence. A charge to the line after a quick tap was halted as a defender ripped the ball in the tackle – only for it to fly up into the air, get blown back over the try line and Ben Bathurst was on hand to touch it down.
The attempt at the impossible – a touchline conversion – wasn’t to be so Bracknell went just 0 – 5 up.
No more than five minutes later however Marlborough hit back.
A series of phases saw the home side make ground with pop passes off 9 to a range of eager ball carriers and finally a clever angled line of running saw the Marlborough loose head crash over.
The conversion attempt into the teeth of the wind ended up closer to the 22 that it ever got to the posts. 5 – 5
On occasion rugby was almost impossible to play with passes that appeared to be heading to the next player down the line veering off randomly and not reaching their target and kicks were a lottery – mainly because the ball wouldn’t behave itself in the split second between leaving hand and connecting with boot.
With very few minutes remaining in the half Bracknell finally opened up a lead on the scoreboard.
After several Bracknell forwards had their attempts to cross the line thwarted Ken Hodgson finally forced his way over
The second half got underway with a reminder to the home side that they wouldn’t necessarily have everything their way.
Bracknell had learned lessons from the first half though. Passes needed to be sympathetic and accurate.
Jake Findlay tiptoed up the touchline for the opening score of the second half.
Again unconverted, what was once a very slender lead was stretched to 10 points. 5 – 15.
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Bracknell’s resolute defence did little more than to shift the somewhat inevitable score along the try line until it was right under the posts.
The conversion was to be the one and only successful kick of the game and made it 12 – 15 with a full 30 minutes left to play.
Marlborough really ramped up the pressure in the last 10 minutes in search of that match winning score.
Time after time they battered the Bracknell defence – time after time they were repelled.
Marlborough finally crossed the line and knocked on rather than touching down. The final whistle blew – the home side were in disbelief – the away side ecstatic.
Bracknell:- Ruairi Henderson, Bradley Walters, Jake Hodge, Nick Carroll, Sam Dunks, Joe Maybey, Ben Bathurst, Ken Hodgson, Lewis Franklin, Alex Frame (cc), Ben Yates, Dan Walton, Dan Mays, Ian Burch (C), Danny Bournes.
Replacements:– Nick Ovens, Tom Field, Jake Findlay (all played)
Match Report by Peter Mably.
Photo courtesy of PGR Photography
