Bracknell fall to late Drybrook defeat

The visitors opened the scoring when captain and centre Ben Large cut through the Bracknell defensive line before dotting down, Tim Stevenson adding the extras.

The Lily Hill men responded almost immediately, however, with Tom Mew going over at the back of a powerful rolling maul.

A Stevenson penalty extended the Drybrook lead to 10-7 on 24 minutes, and his cross-field kick was then hoovered up by full back Ollie Moore who crossed the whitewash for his side's second try.

Trailing 15-7 at the break, Bracknell came out firing and dominated the opening 10 minutes of the second period.

As the pressure began to tell, Drybrook lost both Harry Daynes and Luke Roberts to the sin-bin, and eventually Bracknell broke through as Kieran Forbes managed to get the ball down.

Hardwicke converted to cut the gap to a solitary point with a little more than a quarter of the game remaining.

The hosts took the lead as the match ended its final 10 minutes, Hardwicke landing a penalty after Drybrook had been caught off side.

However, the visitors, who spent almost the whole of the second 40 minutes in their own half, broke out as the game reached its conclusion and a high tackle saw Bracknell's Michael Clarke yellow carded.

From there, Drybrook worked themselves into a position to earn a kickable penalty which they earned when the hosts were caught off side, and Stevenson held his nerve to put his side back in front.

Bracknell did have time to launch one more attack, but a crooked throw at a line-out in the Drybrook 22 allowed the away side to survive.

Reflecting on the outcome, Bracknell chairman of rugby, Martin Radford, said:"I can’t fault the work rate and commitment of the lads, but we just did not take our opportunities when we got into the red zone.

"It was this together with poor discipline which ultimately cost us.”