Henley 2nds power past county rivals

FOLLOWING last week’s postponement due to frozen pitches, Henley 2nds got their Counties 1 Tribute Ale Southern North season back on track with a 29-15 victory at Bicester in their first action in a month.

Henley started the game strongly and broke the deadlock when Charlie Sichel was quickest to react to a bouncing ball and set off before finding Roan Noone in support. He took the ball to the line before Barney Stentiford crashed over.

The visitors scored again when Oliver Snook found Toby Howe who was able to give the ball to Aaron Bello in space. Bello took on the defender before a kick through which Howe chased and dotted down.

Snook was then able to break the line before drawing the last man and giving the pass to Lucas Braithwaite to dart over.

This was his last involvement as an injury ended his afternoon early. Bicester started to win the forward battle and put Henley on to the back foot and the pressure told with two powerful drives from a line-out maul and a scrum.

The last score of the half came from Henley with the impressive Morgan Poiner showing strength to power his way over the line.

While the first half flowed nicely it was the complete opposite in the second half which was stop start and prevented Henley from being able to get any momentum.

With the Bicester forwards on top, it took a huge effort to keep them out. Henley did have a couple of chances where their backs found some space. Howe moved the ball out to Bello and Leach, before being on the end of Ross Lewis’s pass to touch down. Bicester mauled their way over the line to make the final score 29-10 to Henley.