Sat 3 Feb 2024, 14:15
Not for the first time this season Stags were guilty of falling off the pace in the second half of a match, with an agonising 40-35 loss at home to Brackley. It was a case should’ve, could’ve, would’ve won, but didn’t.
In the first two minutes of the match Stags fell of a tackle in midfield and found themselves under their posts following a Brackley try, which was converted to give the visitors a 7-0 lead.
The response from Stags was immediate, and ruthless. The forward pack had the upper hand and three well taken tries from Jack Adkins, Nick Valance and Joe Hicken, with a further two penalties and conversion from Hicken saw Stags cruise into a 23-7 point lead at the break.
Turning down the hill, but into the wind, the first score in the second half was going to be crucial. It wasn’t Stags. Straight from the kick off Brackley went the length of the field to score. This time there was no reaction from Stags, the floodgates opened and Brackley went on to score 33 unanswered points and take a 40-23 lead on the sixty minute mark.
Stags cause was not helped by Seth Muggeridge being shown a yellow card for an overvigorous clear out at a ruck, and no sooner was he back on the field captain Wayne Bradley was shown a yellow for the same offence.
To their credit Stags three everything into the last ten minutes and were rewarded with two further tries to Tanky and Wade Schoemann, one of which was converted by Hicken, to earn two bonus points for four tries and losing within seven points. The final score of 40-35 was a bitter result for Stags though.
Captain Bradley was very critical of his sides performance, saying “I am very critical of my sides performance.
“Defensively we were simply not good enough; you cant expect to win games if you miss as many tackles as we did and for that we only have ourselves to blame.
“We did a few things really well, like the forward effort in the first half, but rugby is an eighty minute game and we only performed for 40 minutes or so” concluded Bradley
Although disappointed with the result, Coach Leader challenged his men to put this right, saying, “I challenge my men to put this right.
“We now have five games remaining, and three wins will see us having a winning season and a top half finish, which would be a good stepping stone as we build into next year.”
Stags first opportunity to “put that right” is in two weeks when they travel to Dunstablians.
