After a battling performance on Wednesday, Brackley fell to the hands of Buckingham in the Lewis Shield 37-6 but despite this do progress to the next round.
The Lewis Shield is an historic competition between local teams, who always seem to raise their level of performance in this competition. Brackley knew this would be a tough opening round against neighbours Buckingham, who are last year's runners up and a couple leagues higher than the hosts. Buckingham started strongly with powerful runs from their forwards working their way into the Brackley 22, threatening to cross the try line early. However excellent Brackley defence saw them withstand the early pressure and eventually Buckingham had to settle with just a penalty.
This seemed to wake Brackley up who started playing a very smart game plan with fly half Mikey Lowe pinning the visitors in the corner as the hosts dominated possession and territory for the majority of the first half. It was Buckingham's turn to show good resolve and hold Brackley out from crossing the whitewash. Despite the frustration of not being able to score a try, Brackley were more than happy to take the points from Buckingham's ill discipline around their 22 and went into half time up 6-3 after two penalties from full back Seb Johnson.
With their coach's voice ringing in their ears, Buckingham raised their level straightaway in the second half and were immediately on top, putting pressure on the hosts. However once again Brackley frustrated the visitors with their excellent defence and it took 10 minutes into the half for Buckingham to level the scores. Both teams started making changes in order to break the deadlock but Brackley struggled to raise their game as Buckingham had and following another penalty the visitors took a 9-6 lead.
With the visitors now in the lead, they started to put even more pressure on the Brackley line but the hosts continued to repel them. Then with Brackley down to 14 men due to a sin binning, Buckingham were able to get the ball to the backs on the halfway line and into the hands of their left winger, who had enough space to show off some incredible speed as he raced his way down the wing to get the first try of the match. With only 15 minutes remaining, this opened the flood gates somewhat, as the same winger scored another excellent individual try to extend the lead. Two more tries were added late on through some powerful runs as the visitors eventually won 37-6.
Brackley must be proud of in particular their first half performance against one of the favourites in the competition and a team several leagues above them. Following the game, it turned out that Buckingham had fielded an ineligible player and were forced to concede the mach meaning Brackley do go through to the next round.
Brackley now go into 2019 knowing they have the squad to challenge for promotion and can beat anybody in the league. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone who supports the club, we will see you in 2019!!!
