Bracknell

Bracknell coach Jamie Turner has admitted the pressure is starting to get to his struggling team.

Bracknell are rooted to the bottom of the National Division Three (south) table with seven defeats in their opening eight games and Turner knows he needs to turn things around quickly.

But a run of defeats, including last weekend's 26-10 reverse at home to Rosslyn Park, has knocked confidence at Lily Hill Park and Turner faces a tough task lifting the morale of his side.

The said: "The pressure is starting to affect us a bit. We try and keep things positive in training but the fact of where we are in the league is definitely having an impact.

"You can sense the edginess is coming into our play as we're giving away more penalties and turning the ball over more often which is all a sign of that increased pressure.

"It's hard to recreate match-day pressure in training but we'll be working hard to make sure the players are able to keep their composure in pressure situations.

"Anyone can beat anyone else in this league which gives us hope. A couple of wins and the table will look very different but we need to get another win under our belts quickly as we don't want a gap opening up above us.

"The supporters and staff have been very supportive as they're just desperate to win a few games. It is frustrating for them as well as they can see that we are capable of playing well in patches but that we've been unable to sustain it so far."

Bracknell will be hoping for better fortune this Saturday when they renew a few old friendships at fellow strugglers Southend (2.15pm ko).

Southend's director of rugby is Kev Harman, who was once assistant coach under Bob Crooks at Lily Hill, while the Essex outfit also have the ex-Bracknell duo of Andrew Frost and Dan Legge in their ranks.

Rob Smart will be missing for Bracknell after being sent on an Army posting to Afghanistan while veteran prop Greg Anstead is a major doubt after struggling to shake off a shoulder injury.

Bracknell ............................10 Rosslyn Park ......................26

IT must have felt like Groundhog Day for Bracknell Rugby Club fans last weekend.

Once again they witnessed a frustrating Bracknell performance which promised much but delivered little as the home side crashed to their seventh defeat in eight games.

"Once again it was a very frustrating afternoon," admitted coach Jamie Turner.

"We played well for long periods, had more opportunities than them but gave away two very soft tries.

"Their last try flattered them a bit but whenever we got into position we did something silly or spurned the opportunity as we're still trying to force the pass at times.

"Decisions are also starting to go against us a bit as we had a try ruled out for a forward pass and had a couple of penalties in front of the posts reversed against us. But that's just the way things are going at the moment."

Bracknell started the game brightly but despite dominating the early exchanges it was the visitors who struck first when number eight Jon Underwood powered over with good support from his fellow forwards.

Richard McKeown slotted the conversion for Park but Bracknell maintained their impressive start to hit back with a try from Fijian winger Kameli Vuadreu, Ben Nowak's conversion levelling the score at 7-7.

McKeown then slotted a couple of penalties to give Park a 13-7 lead but Ben Nowak landed a kick of his own to reduce the gap to three points at half-time.

Bracknell were caught nap-ping at the start of the second half as Park winger Marcus McCluggage dived over within two minutes of the restart.

The visitors missed the conversion but still held an 18-10 lead and hopes of a Bracknell fightback were hit three minutes later when Andy Morris was sin-binned for an offence at a ruck.

McKeown slotted another penalty to stretch Park's lead to 21-10 but Bracknell still refused to give up and proceeded to produce some of their best rugby of the day.

They were very unfortunate not to be awarded a try when Ben Nowak crossed the line as the linesman called them back for a marginal forward pass.

Several other close calls also went against the home side but there was still a feeling that their pressure would tell until a moment of indiscipline cost them dear.

Dave Budge suffered a moment of madness and was yellow carded for an off the ball tackle with the home side having already been awarded a penalty on the Park line.

Bracknell's chances of salvaging anything from the game disappeared with Budge's departure and Richard Jackson's injury-time try rubbed added salt into their wounds.

ic Berkshire Bracknell ~ Nov 17 2005