Bancroft v Epping 20.09.14

Bancroft 8- Epping Upper Clapton RFC 52

Epping travelled to Bancroft looking for win number two from two. The previous week they had performed well for the majority of the fixture against Pegasus, minor adjustments and a focus on a couple of tactical areas have been addressed during this week’s training sessions.

Epping started slowly and a couple of ‘school boy’ errors in the first 10 minutes, resulted in unnecessary penalties one of which was converted by Bancroft’s to give them an early 3-0 lead

From the restart a fine break from the forwards with support from both backs and forwards resulted in a converted try under the posts 7-3 to Epping, 13 minutes gone Epping’s line out were hitting their targets consistently and this resulted in another converted try out wide 14-3

As the first half came to a close, another break from midfield saw a fine try after more good support play with the conversion added 21-3 at half time

The second half saw no changes to Epping line up and they started as they left off with an unconverted try to push the lead to 26-3

Bancroft having lost two of their players through injury were not out the game and came back at Epping with a well worked unconverted try, 26-8. The next try was from Epping, who were determined to quell the Bancroft comeback, this time from well worked plays keeping the scoreboard ticking over to 33-8, Epping sent on replacements but unfortunately Bancroft lost a front row player so the game went to uncontested scrums, much to the disappointment of the Epping replacements who wanted to exert more pressure on the Bancroft scrum, Epping carried on where they left off scoring a further converted try and the final ten minutes saw a further two tries, one of which was converted 52-8 final score

The performance mirrors and supports the feeling amongst the squad that continued hard work will create opportunities for both individuals and the team as a whole, Epping are just beginning their journey into a new era of club rugby, there are always areas that can be improved, and the coaching staff and squad will address those issues this week at training leading into this weeks fixtures

Next week Epping host Dagenham RFC following the first club lunch of the new season, interested parties should contact Paul Donnelly