Brackley RUFC

It turned out to be a disappointing weekend for Brackley as both the 1st XV and Development team lost despite two encouraging performances.

The 1st XV took the trip to take on a Stamford College Old Boys side that were not only buoyed by their win against Birstall a fortnight ago but were also playing with a heavy heart after their young fly half had sadly passed away the week before. It was a competitive match for the whole 80 minutes and saw a much improved Brackley performance from the previous week.

Brackley had the better control of possession early on with the wind behind them but struggled to take advantage of this as neither side were able to build a substantial lead. Strong running from the Brackley forwards was causing headaches for the home side but they themselves were showing off their catch and drive strength whenever possible. Tries from Brad Morgan and Dan Rolfe had the score at 12-12, when in a storybook ending for Stamford, their fly half and captain scored a wonderful individual try to win the match 17-12 in the last minute of the game.

The Development team will also be ruing their missed chances as they fell to Towcestrians 3rd XV 29-10 in an evenly contested match up. With Tows only turning up with 14 players, Brackley lent them club Chairman Bob Cutting to play prop but quickly regretted this when they conceded a penalty try after infringing at scrum time on the five metre line.

After this bad initial start, the hosts played much better for the next 70 minutes but struggled to convert their chances. Tows on the other hand had an outside centre who is undoubtedly the quickest player Brackley will see all season and was able to race away at ease for three tries. The home side did get on the scoreboard in the second half with prop Luke Andrew crashing over as well as the evergreen Richard Corbett scoring in the corner to finish the game 29-10 to Towcestrians.

Whilst neither team were able to get the win, both sides had encouraging performances and for the second time in three weeks, more than 40 players turned out to play for the two Brackley sides. We wish the players who suffered injuries on Saturday a speedy recovery, especially to Bob Cutting and Simon Cave who will both be out for some time. Next week there's only one fixture, which sees the 1st XV host Thorney.