Promising start for Uys

Published 20 Aug 2010 09:31 0 Comments

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BRACKNELL RFC started their pre-season campaign with a ‘promising’ defeat against National Two South side Richmond at Lily Hill Park on Saturday.

New head coach Darian Uys’ saw his side out-scored by four tries to two as they went down 38-18 on the day.

But chairman of rugby Guy Young believes it was a good run-out for the squad. And he is expecting to see more from them when Uys’ old side Sidcup come to town on Saturday.

He said: “We were about 10 or 11 first team players short and I thought we showed a lot of promise.

“We gave them a good game for about the first three-quarters of the match and then we ran out of gas a bit.

“They outscored us by four tries to two, and two of their scores came towards the end of the match.

“They are a very good side but when we concentrated on the basics we did exceptionally well.”

The game saw new signing Dan Antonelli make his debut for the Bracknell at fly-half, while Young was particularly impressed with the appetite shown by prop Dan Harvey, who played for Broadmoor last year.

He said: “Dan Antonelli did well, but still has a long way to go.

“He is only a young lad and we will get a better idea of where he is at this weekend when we will have something close to our first string back-line.

“Prop Dan Harvey showed that he has the desire to do well, which is great to see.”

Next up for Bracknell is Saturday’s friendly clash against Sidcup, in which the Lily Hill Park side will be looking to give a runout to well-over 20 players.

Young thinks it will be a good indicator of how the strong the Bracknell squad is.

He said: “I think we may well play four quarters and alternate the side at each interval.

“We will put out two different sides, a first string and a second string.

“Sidcup are a good side from the level below, who just missed out on promotion last season.

“They nearly joined us in our league this year, so I think this weekend will give us a good idea of where we are at as a team.

“We should still have a few more players back, but Dan Ap Dafydd is still recovering from his arm injury.”

After Saturday Bracknell are planning to hold an inter-club match on either August 26 or August 27 and will then be fully focused on their National Three London opener against Dorking on Saturday, September 4.

Young added: “Dorking will be a tough match to start with.

“They gave us two good games last year, so we want the players to be well rested heading into that. It is our second year in the London Division and I definitely think we can build on our experiences last year.

“It is a faster league than South West with a better calibre of player but we showed last year that we have the ability and the desire to well in the league.”

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