Bracknell’s away day woes continue with narrow defeat
Exeter University 42 Bracknell 40
BRACKNELL’S away day woes continued with a last-gasp narrow defeat at Exeter.
Still without a victory on their travels all season, Bracknell did at least bring two bonus points back from their trip down the M5 thanks to tries from Chris Laidler, Gabe Hills, Cam McDonald, Michael Clarke and Jason Henry.
Exeter University went into the weekend with victory in all but one of their home games so far this campaign and they quickly got in front again.
Second row Edward Grinsted crashed over with less than five minutes gone and before the visitors had even got out of their half it was 10-0 when Harry Bazalgette kicked over.
The afternoon went from bad to worse for Bracknell when winger William Yarnell went over in the corner not once but twice as Exeter opened up a daunting 22-0 lead midway through the first half.
But the away side battled back, scoring three tries themselves to reduce the arrears to just one point by the break.
Laidler was the first to go over, collecting possession from McDonald and Hills was quick to follow.
McDonald then went from provider to scorer just before half-time, breaking through the defence to score with Vic Hardwicke accurate from the tee.
Exeter regathered their bearings to score again soon after the restart through Thomas Foot, but Bracknell then rallied to take the lead for the first time thanks to tries from Clarke and Henry, who charged the complete length of the pitch.
The hosts struck back through Yarnell to complete his hat-trick, only for Bracknell to move one point ahead as the game entered its closing stages with McDonald again doing the honours.
But straight from the restart, a knock-on was gathered by a Bracknell man in an offside position which gave Exeter the chance to snatch a 42-40 victory when Bazalgette kicked the resulting penalty through the posts.
“We can’t give that many points away and expect to win games,” said Bracknell’s head of rugby Daniel ap Dafydd.
“Too many errors cost us.” Ap Dafydd’s men host Exmouth on Saturday (2.30pm).
BRACKNELL: Laidler, Hills, Henry, Nacamavutu, McDonald, Hardwicke, Segre, Bellman, Clarke (c), Dowding, Bailey, Stevenson-Leigh, Scott, Spencer-Jones, Salustri. Reps: Coterell, Plant, Findley.