Promising Bucks performance gives Taylor hope

Buckinghamshire RFU coach John Taylor is hoping his team will build on the promise of their opening County Championship Plate pool match when they play their second fixture away to Sussex on Saturday.

Bucks went down 30-10 away to Kent on Saturday, but Taylor said the scoreline was misleading and praised his side's scrum and lineout.

"It was a close game at 16-10 with 15 minutes to go when a crucial decision over a quick lineout went against us," he explained. "Our boys hesitated, Kent went up the field to score and make it 23-10 and they scored another converted try after that.

"I think possession was about 60/40 in our favour, but we did make handling errors and conceded too many turnovers and penalties, and they are all things for us to work on against Sussex who are always a close-knit side. We know we can play better."

Bucks trained at Maidenhead RFC - Taylor's club base - today (Wednesday) before naming their team, which is likely to be captained again by blind-side flanker Rob Fenwick. There will be changes, according to Taylor, due to injuries to some players and others such as British Police No.8 Andy Thompson becoming available.

- Berkshire are looking to break a five-year losing streak in the County Championship Plate when they host Kent at Reading Abbey RFC on Saturday.

Berks team manager Bob Ward saw signs of promise in last week's opening fixture - a 25-17 defeat away to Sussex - when the greater cohesion afforded by increased training time had a positive effect.

"Last year, the team had one session together before playing, but we have had four this year and they are bound to know each other better as a result," said Ward.

"The Sussex match was our best all-round performance in the two years I have been involved and we are hoping to continue that against Kent, who are likely to be strong opponents even though we have beaten them at under 20 level."

Berks have lost one player to injury, and there may be a couple of tactical switches but they expect to name a mostly unchanged line-up after training tomorrow night (Thursday).