Leaders charge to milestone victory and retain advantage

Adam Walsh is tackled during Banbury Bulls' victory against Droitwich at Bodicote Park

The leaders ran in 17 tries in Saturday’s 105-8 victory over Droitwich ahead of this weekend’s RFU Midlands Intermediate Cup and Oxon County Cup ties.

Bulls played hard, fast, aggressive rugby for 80 minutes. The forwards were outstanding, the pack worked tirelessly and the backline looked dangerous whenever they had the ball.

It didn’t take long for Bulls to score the first points. A scrum in the middle of the park allowed the Bulls to call a blindside move which ended in Joe Mills cantering in untouched.

Moments later some excellent off-loading and direct running from the forwards again allowed the Banbury backline to pick holes in the Droitwich defence and Ed Phillips popped up at the right time to take the last pass and score under the posts before adding the two points.

A lack of discipline allowed Droitwich three points but Bulls executed their game plan and Droitwich could not cope with the aggressive lines of running from the forwards and the class from the backline. Within 15 minutes Bulls had their bonus point with tries from Jimmy Manley and Jed Boyle.

Banbury’s only blip in the game came when they sat back and allowed Droitwich some ball. Although the defence was strong Droitwich did cross the white wash from a well worked driving maul.

But Bulls ran in six more tries before halftime from Josh Deegan, who had moved to scrum half in Phillips’ absence, Adam Walsh, Matt Goode, Jimmy Manley and Sean Bannister (2). Mills converted eight of them making the score 48-8 at halftime.

With tougher games on the horizon it was vital to go through the phases and earn the right to go wide. Bulls started the second half as they finished the first and a deflated Droitwich team didn’t know which way to turn.

When they defended around the fringes, Bulls threw the ball wide and when they kept players out wide Banbury played direct rugby through the middle. Tries from Sam Stoop, Deegan, Manley and Walsh kept the scoreboard ticking over.

A training ground move produced the best try, Stoop found Walsh who crossed for his hat-trick. With time ticking by and the 100 point mark getting closer, Bulls produced tries through Stoop, Deegan, Goode and Manley, and, along with several conversions from Mills, they finally passed the milestone.