Sat 9 Nov 2019, 14:15
When kicking was the only real way forward on a wet and muddy away day.
Buckby started brightly and Sam Dorans found himself in space making a good run. Then seemed to be a lot of back and forth with the boot and former Buckby player Jonny Palmer made touch in the Bucbky 22. Andy Wilcox was lifted and won the line out before coming down and going over on his ankle needing to be replaced by Andrew Tarplee very early on. Buckby were able to clear and on a day where there was a lot of handling error Buckby won a scrum on the Bugbrooke 22 and from the resulting scrum which saw the first game of the season for Tim Lewis Buckby won a penalty, Buckby went for goal but this was dragged wide on 10 minutes. The next 10 minutes would see further back and forth kicking, handling errors but good turnovers in the loose from Jake Toesland and Fergus Murray. Bugbrooke won a penalty and kicked the points 3-0 (20 mins).
The following 15 minutes continued in the same vain, lots of kicking back and forth and gaining ground from the boot and mistakes from both sides. On one kicking exchange Tim Dixon covering the back three caught the ball in the 22 and looked to kick to touch. This fell short into the arms of the oncoming winger making yards up to the 22. Sharp thinking from the Bugbrooke number 9 saw space in behind the Buckby defence and a little chip over the top saw Bugbrooke players winning the foot race to the line 8-0 (35 mins).
Half Time
From the kick off Fergus Murray found a gap in the Bugbrooke midfield charging down the pitch before getting tackled on the 10 and almost sliding to the 22. With Bugbrooke scrambling Ryan Clarke put the cross field grubber in for Harvey Draper to latch onto and slide over the line which was converted 8-7 (41 mins).
Buckby got their tails up and looked to get ahead. Some good kicking from Ryan Clarke had Bugbrooke under pressure in their own 22. However 3 soft penalties in a row saw Buckby in their own 22. From the resulting lineout and under pressure from the rolling maul gave Bugbrooke penalty advantage and chance to unleash their backs with their centre crashing over on a good line near the posts 15-7 (50 mins).
The next 25 minutes saw more of the same, with kicks from both teams. Buckby trying to play with the ball more in hand but errors would give Bugbrooke the chance to kick into good area’s, I’m sure this is not the type of rugby either teams would like to play but it gave Bugbrooke the most yards going forwards. From a Buckby error this would enable Bugbrooke to score from close range once more 22-7 (73 mins)
From the kick off Bugbrooke made their best individual run with their backrow knocking over a couple of Buckby tacklers and making a good 30-40 metres before getting dragging down. From this momentum Bugbrooke kept moving forwards and played the best with ball in hand all day, eventually scoring after multiple phases to finish the scoring 27-7.
Full Time
