Bracknell

Bracknell and Reading renew hostilities for the first time in five years this Saturday with both sides fighting for their lives at the foot of the table.

Bracknell have not met their Berkshire rivals in a competitive fixture since 2000 when they completed the double over the Holme Park outfit in National Division Two - defeats which ultimately helped condemn Reading to relegation at the end of the season.

Both sides have endured some difficult times since that season and currently occupy the bottom two places in National Division Three (south).

They have both won just one of their opening six games, although Bracknell climbed off the foot of the table at Reading's expense after picking up a bonus point against Old Patesians last weekend.

It promises to be an uncompromising battle of the basement boys this Saturday (2.30pm ko) but Bracknell coach Jamie Turner is delighted to be renewing the old rivalry.

He said: "We've not played each other in a few years but it's good to see a traditional fixture back on the calender.

"Rob Smart is ex-Reading and has told me a few things about the way they like to play.

"They like to play it in the forwards before working it wide so we'll work on combating that in training.

"Although it's only one game it means a lot to the supporters and club officials and the players just have to keep their cool and not get too uptight."

Bracknell will again travel with a depleted squad, although skipper Sam Nowak should be back to boost the pack after finally recovering from a broken thumb.

However, Ed Smith and Kameli Vuadreu are still on Army sevens duty in Hong Kong and Sebastian Berti is playing for Chile in Portugal.

Bracknell will also give late fitness tests to Greg Anstead (shoulder), Dan Murphy (knee) and Craig Fellows, although Va'a Mulipola should be fit to play after shaking off his troublesome shoulder injury.

Bracknell ............................21 Old Patesians......................23

BRACKNELL picked up a bonus point to climb off the foot of the table last Saturday but there was little else to cheer the Lily Hill Park faithful last weekend.

Bracknell managed to lose a game they should have won at a canter as they were unable to claw back the deficit after allowing Old Patesians to get off to a flying start.

"It was extremely frustrating as we were much the better team for long periods but little mistakes ended up costing us," admitted Turner.

"We started really badly but then came back strongly and should have been further ahead than 15-10 at half-time.

"It looked like we were going to win the game quite comfortably at that point but the game got all broken up in the second half.

"It became really scrappy which suited them and we could-n't get back into our stride.

"The lead kept changing hands and there were lots of mistakes and turnovers but they just managed to hang on to shade it.

"The players are so desperate to turn things around at the moment that they sometimes try too hard to force a pass or we lose our shape.

"We need some of our experienced players to try and calm the younger heads down as we're working hard but not getting our reward at the moment."

Bracknell could not have got off to a worse start last weekend as they conceded two early tries to find themselves 10-0 down inside the opening quarter.

However, Patesians missed both conversion attempts and Bracknell quickly rallied to storm into a 15-10 lead by half-time.

Ben Nowak got things going for the home side by powering his way over the line from 20 metres out, with Berti slotting a fine conversion.

Bracknell gradually took control of the set-pieces and their sustained pressure paid dividends when Berti tied the scores up at 10-10 after slotting home a penalty from in front of the posts.

Bracknell looked unstoppable at this stage and Berti gave the home side a 15-10 lead when he managed to wriggle over the line at the end of a fine attacking move.

Dave Budge was unlucky not to stretch Bracknell's lead just before half-time when he was unable to collect a cross-field kick from Rob Smart just short of the line.

However, the game degenerated as a spectacle after the break and Old Patesians slowly began to work their way back into the match.

Some sloppy home defence allowed the visitors to score a converted try and regain the lead at 17-15 just six minutes after the interval.

The game then became a scrappy, dis-jointed affair which saw Patesians stretch their lead to 21-18 after an exchange of penalties.

Joe Clapson then received a yellow card for the home side but Bracknell still carved out a great opportunity for Budge, who was hauled down just short of the try line.

Bracknell kept pressing, however, and Berti brought them to within two points with another successful penalty.

When Patesians had a player sin-binned Bracknell sensed their chance, but despite plenty of possession in the closing minutes they were unable to force a way through as they slumped to another agonisingly narrow defeat.

ic Berkshire ~ Nov 3 2005