Not even a late punch could floor Beaconsfield on Saturday as they went toe-to-toe with high flying Thatcham and emerged with an 18-12 triumph.

The visitors were 13 points behind in the closing stages of the match before one of their players was red carded for throwing two punches at a Becky player.

Coach Simon Tattersall felt the violent act came as a direct result of his side’s domination of a game which the visitors would have been expecting to win after a 43-12 victory in the reverse fixture.

He said: “I think it showed that we’d frustrated them with our legal physicality and our defensive play. We’d frustrated a team that thought they were going to come and beat us.

“Obviously no one wants to see what happened at the end of that game – it’s not what rugby’s about – but it showed that we’d done our jobs to a certain extent.”

Amazingly the referee penalised Beaconsfield in the aftermath of the punch for an earlier infringement, and bought play back for a scrum which the visitors scored a converted try from.

The late try made the score line look closer than the game was, but it was still not enough to take the gloss off a fine win for Tattersall and his team which made up for a thrashing in the reverse fixture.

“We were very disrupted when we went over there earlier in the season whereas I think we’d had a good couple of weeks training leading into this match,” he said.

“We had four training sessions to get it right and four sessions to show that we’re a better team than they gave us credit for and I think we did that.”

Gerry Goss and Ed Waugh scored the tries for the hosts at Oak Lodge Meadow, with fly-half Robbie Waldron kicking two penalties and a conversion from the tee.

The victory takes on even more significance for Becky given that their opponents were challenging towards the top of the table and the result has put down a marker for Tattersall’s players.

He said: “I think the players now realise what they’re capable of but I think they’re now beginning to realise what they need to do when they get in front.

“When they get in front that’s a time where we have to really up our levels and make sure we stay in control of the game. Once we go in front we don’t want to let a team back in.

“Bar a bit of peculiar goings on at the end of the game on Saturday, which ended in a red card for one of their players, it would have been 18-5.”

The challenge now for Beaconsfield is to follow up victory against Thatcham with another strong performance when they host Bicester tomorrow.

“We’ve got to ensure that this Saturday we do the same thing against Bicester,” explained Tattersall.

“We lost that game with the last kick of the game over at their place so it’s another one where we want to put the record straight.”