Hopkins warns against complacency

Published 30 Mar 2010 13:03 0 Comments

BRACKNELL head coach Ken Hopkins was full of praise for his side after they recorded their third win in seven days against North Walsham on Saturday.

But he warned them to expect another tough test when fifth-placed Bishop's Stortford come to town this weekend.

Bracknell came out on top 19-13 when the sides met in Hertfordshire last year. But despite Lily Hill Park being a good hunting ground for Bracknell this season, Hopkins is taking nothing for granted ahead of the weekend.

He said: "Usually you expect teams to be more difficult away from home, but I suspect we will have a harder match than when we played at their place.

"Looking at their results recently it looks like they have really got their act together.

"They are playing well, so we will have to build on our recent wins to beat them."

On Saturday Bracknell overturned a first half deficit to run out comfortable 35-5 victors courtesy of two tries from Tim Diack, and one each from Kevin McKenzie, Dan Ap Dafydd and Ben Nowak. This capped a tremendous week's work for Hopkins' side. He said: "It has been a great week for us really.

"We beat Sutton & Epsom convincingly and then won through to the Berkshire Cup final after a proper game against Redingensians.

"And we have kept that form going away to North Walsham.

"It was our biggest journey of the season. We left Bracknell at 8.15 in the morning so it was a real marathon effort.

"We scored some good tries and it was a good defensive display."

And Hopkins was pleased to see his side show plenty of resilience as they bounced back from Walsham's early score.

He said: "They scored an early try to go in front, but we scored just before half-time, which really turned things in our favour.

"Ben Nowak kicked two penalties as well in the first half so we led 13-5 at half-time.

"After the break we scored four good tries and the longer the game went on the more dominant we became, which was pleasing to see."

Bracknell: Arundle, Carter, Mackay, Nowak, McKenzie, Manupenu, Ap Dafydd; Mirza, Surman, Hoskins, Borcherds, Brambley, Sparks, Diack, Maybury. Replacements: Astbury, Staples, Aiono.

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