Cranbrook RFC 15 - 26 HSBC RFC

As we waited for the coach to arrive two things became clear. First, a 1030 meet at the Clubhouse was not a religiously followed rule and second that "Wookie and away games don't mix". Nevertheless our travel arrived and we boarded our Executive Coach (free wifi) and began the journey south towards Kent.

Arriving shortly after 1 we quickly went into a warm-up and the signs looked promising, a clear sky, light breeze and good pitch underfoot. As this is only my second game I can confidently say that the first 15 minutes of the match was the best Rugby I have seen this season from Bank. Strong forward play, fronting up in the contact zone and getting the reward we deserved with a 12 point to nothing lead. Bob grabbed the first from a rolling maul after some excellent offloads from the pack and then Steve Polese followed up with another score which Haydon converted. After a another good 10 minutes of play with a crunching line break from Brooksy Cranbrook woke up and started to show us some of the attacking Rugby they were capable of. A few tackles were missed and their back row started to take control of the breakdown. The Referee made it clear from the outset he didn't take backchat, foul play or professional fouls. So in the last 10 minutes of the first half we thought we'd test him on 2 out of the 3. Within the space of 5 minutes we were down to 13 men and went into half time with our backs against the wall as Cranbrook relentlessly attacked.

Half time Cranbrook 12 - Bank 12.

Still down to 13 we started the second half under pressure from Cranbrook and spent most of the first 20 minutes defending our own 22 and struggled to get our own attacking Rugby flowing. A simple penalty from Cranbrook put them in the lead for the first time and with the large crowd behind them they began to gain momentum. From a line out they built a promising attack with numbers out wide, just as they looked to spread it Pebs came in with a sharp interception which he ran in from 70 metres. The crowd were furious, but Haydon converted the try and we lead 19 - 15. After the kick off came arguably our best attack of the game, from a turnover we found numbers out wide with forwards drawing men and paces to players in space. With a clear run in, in yards of space, under no pressure Colesy had the chance to run in a beautiful team try. Unfortunately his hands werent quite as fast as his feet and the chance went begging. Moments later we found ourselves back under the cosh, Cranbrook were down to 14 men but keeping us on our 5 metre line and even got a penalty under the post with 5 minutes to play. They chose a scrum from which we turned the ball over and made our way back to the half way line. With just 2 minutes on the clock we had one last attack against a tiring Cranbrook which Haydon ended up scoring and subsequently converting to secure a bonus point win. We closed out the last two minutes of the game winning a penalty at a hard fought break down.

Final Score Cranbrook 15 - Bank 26.