Bancroft 1st XV fresh from a well-earned victory against Pegasus the previous week travelled to East London to face the Kings Cross Steelers.
Historically this was a side against which the visitors had performed well. With a squad hampered with injuries and unavailable players Bancroft knew this had the potential to be the proverbial banana skin.
The game started at a frantic pace with the Steelers XV showing that they would not shy away from the Bancroft challenge up front, strong scrummaging from the front row of Dan Lea, Tony (Troll) How and Rich Wilson set the stall out early for things to come. After jousting for the first ten minutes Bancroft started to turn the screw and in a scrum on the 5 metre line the Bancroft backs ran a lovely set piece move with intricate hands resulting in a try scored wide by Troll which was duly converted by captain Adam Capon for 7-0. After this Bancroft continued to put pressure on King Cross against whichthe Steelers defended well and slowly started to get themselves back into the game, finishing the stronger side going into halftime.
After a rousing team talk from Coach Colin Murphy the Bancroft boys emerged a new side gaining and converting an early penalty from strong ruck and turnover work from Sean Rose. The team went from strength to strength with quality breakdown work from debutant Nathan Sandland Jones and number 8 Alex Swayne yielding more penalties which were duly converted by Adam. The Steelers however did not give up; resilient defending was needed from returning centre pairing Sam Hodgson and Chris Grant as well as full back Albert Varney to help Bancroft maintain their lead. Continued pushing of the Steelers started to show some frustration leading an illegal tip tackle resulting an injury to Bancroft second row Michael James who had been having a good game with strong carries and rucking.
This man advantage saw Bancroft turn the screw and the forwards asserted their dominance leading to an easy try for pack leader Steve Powell after a 5 metre scrum. Kings Cross started to crumble and not long after this quick thinking and dexteritery from scrum half Tony Smith saw an easy try for Chris Grant in the centres.
Going into the last 5 minutes Kings Cross had a late resurrection and started to attack well resulting in a consolation try scored wide. Bancroft did not want to end on a low and in the last play of the game quality line out work from the pack set up a driving maul from 20 yards out Kings Cross knew what was coming so tried to stop and collapse it however reminiscent to Wales vs New Zealand in 2012 the backs decided to join in with the drive sending the ball over with Man Of The Match Rich Wilson dotting the ball down for a final score of 5-32 to Bancroft.
This was a great performance following the previous week really instilling a feel good atmosphere around the squad and giving confidence going into the big game the following week at home vs Millwall who came out with a big win against Old Brentwoods.
A massive week lies ahead for the Bancrofts boys and it starts with training on Tuesday.
Get down on Saturday and support the 1st XV. Kick off 3pm at Bancroft Rugby Club.