Taking the ball to their opponents from the first whistle, they grew in strength and purpose as the game wore on and two forceful tries in the final quarter from prop Thomas Kozlowski and second row Ben Moore sealed a comfortable 26-12 victory, consisting of four tries and three conversions against four penalty goals.

Brackley opened their account within the first ten minutes when David Boot-Handford collected the ball on halfway and burst through the Long Buckby defence for a fine solo try which he successfully converted.

Although they continued to dominate possession, Brackley were careless in the loose and soon allowed Long Buckby back on terms with two beautifully struck penalty goals from long range.

Awarded a penalty of their own deep in Long Buckby territory, Brackley's decision to run the ball was vindicated as fly half Graeme Cartmell squeezed over for a try. Boot-Handford's conversion gave Brackley an eight-point lead but again Brackley overlooked Long Buckby's proficiency with the boot and conceded two more penalty goals, taking the half time score to 12-14.

Long Buckby had no answer to the power of Brackley's forwards in a second half in which the back row trio of Anthony Jones, Andy Morris and Joe Staniforth were immense.

Injury having forced scrum half Gareth James from the field shortly before half time, Jason Flynn moved up from full back and his pace from the back of the set piece brought added problems for Long Buckby.

Brackley: Flynn (replaced by Boot-Handford after 30 minutes), Gray, Marshall-Grant, Titchener, Boot-Handford (replaced by Ryan Murray after 30 minutes), Cartmell, James, Kozlowski, Ayr, Cutting, Moore, Collins, Jones, Morris, Staniforth.

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