Swifts can't start the new year on a win

The Swifts 1st team made the long travel to their old rivals Brackley. In recent years both clubs have fallen from grace and this match was a bottom of the table encounter.

The weather was surprisingly good and this helped for a good game of rugby. In the past the Brackley pitch has been unplayable but today it was in prestige condition, the winter break giving it time to recover.

The Christmas break seemed to have the opposite effect on the Swifts boys, as they came up short to lose this game.

All was going well for the lads as they started with excellent vigour and tenacity. The Brackley pack were being pushed to their limit by the Swifts pack and some great work from James Harley at the line out allowed for some of the cleanest line out ball seen in swifts colours. The ball found its way into the Brackley 22 where a resultant line out drew a penalty, which Paul Robson slotted making it 3-0.

The forwards were at it again and the ball found its way to Jamie Goss who fly hacked (yes really!) and the ball hit the Brackley post and he pounced and scored. Paul Robson added the extras to make it 10-0.

The Swifts of last year were not banished however, and failing to clear the ball from the next restart allowed Brackley to score out wide. Their 10 was having an off day and missed the conversion.

Paul Robson slotted another penalty to make it 13-5.

Brackley once again kicked and Swifts failed to react to a tricky ball and Brackley powered over. Swifts defence was resolute in the run up, with Andrew Stocks emptying his opposite number to a chorus of grimaces from the partisan crowd. Ed Loader as also at it, dominating a second row into the ground in the run up.

Half time Brackley 10-13 Swifts. Swifts were firmly in the driving seat at this point.

Brackley had gone down to 14 men before the break, they're number 8 falling foul of the new tackle law. Swifts had 9 minutes to capitalise. But they failed to do so and they were looking weary now. Balls were being dropped, and the team were not clicking. Fitness was starting to show.

Brackley had a great 2nd half and ran in 3 tries after swifts had about 6 guilt edged chances to score themselves. A lack of depth, missed tackles and poor decision making cost Swifts on the day. And the Christmas weight also had an effect.

The Brackley 8 was red carded at the end of the game for a similar tackling offence, and the referee applied the new laws correctly. Swifts will have to look at this in future weeks as this will play massively in games.

The final score was Brackley 30-13 Swifts.

On reflection it was a poor day at the office for Swifts who are now rooted to the bottom of the table. But with the two weeks off and loss of fitness they had some justification for their loss. But excuses are not needed when the team are trying to play flowing, attractive rugby. Each player who played today needs to do extra in their spare time, be it a run every other day, attend training or getting down the gym.

The second team put in a massive shift against their opponents, Kettering 4xv with a 20-19 win.

Next week sees a break for the 1st and 2nd teams, but the boys will want some game time to carry on into the week after against Deepings.