Sat 25 Jan 2020
Buckby would welcome the bottom team in the league knowing exactly what they needed to do to ensure they remained there. Ryan Clark would kick off up the slope and gave the ball plenty of air, giving the Buckby pack chance to regather but captain Jake Toseland would knock on in the air. The first key battle of the day would be in the scrum and in the past Buckby have gone backwards against the heavier S&L pack but not today. It held strong and S&L probed around the fringes before kicking long into the Buckby 22, this was returned with interest by full back Andy Oliver. From the resulting line out Buckby put pressure on the throw and the lineout was not straight so Buckby would get chance to get their hands on the ball. From the scrum, Buckby would look to run some moves with Ed Sitch hitting a hard line, supported by Craig Eales, Timmy Dixon and Dave Wardle making some early carries around the corner. Buckby looked to get down the wing with Jack Gibbins who was tackled into touch but the referee would bring the play back for a tackle beyond the horizontal the phase before. Ryan Clark would kick to about 15 metres out and the Buckby forwards would take control. Tim Lewis would split away from the maul making an extra 5 meters before Chris Page would pick and go towards the try line with support from Dan Taylor and David Wardle looked to drive through and opened the scoring but the referee deemed the ball to be held up. The resulting scrum would give Buckby the chance to go again and play with a penalty advantage from the scrum, this didn’t go anywhere but the next set of phases saw a good carry by Tim Lewis and Fergus Murray before Sam Dudgeon released Ryan Clark and the backs, feeding Ed Sitch through a gap in the midfield, side stepping the full back and winning the foot race to the try line, this was converted by Ryan Clark 7-0 (9 mins).
Buckby would look to keep ball in hand and move it away from the big forward pack, carries from Jake O’Keife, Tim Dixon and Dan Taylor gave front foot ball before going the opposite direction and good hands released Jack Gibbins down the line again making a 30 meter run. With the front ball Craig Eales would find himself some space to get ahead of stream handing off 2 players before getting dragged down by another 2 or 3 S & L defenders. This surge created an overlap and Ryan Clark found Josh Brown with a flat miss pass for Josh to run hard towards the line spinning out of the last gasp tackle and place the ball over the line in the corner, Ryan Clark would convert off the post to make it 14-0 (22 mins).
Buckby switched off from the kick off and S&L got the ball back quickly and used their strengths around the fringes with their big ball carrying forwards gaining yards. S&L would be playing with a penalty advantage and the scrum half would throw a flat pass out to the winger to score 14-7 (24 mins). The remained of the half would see lots of niggly rugby with both teams having time with ball in hand but S&L mainly concentrated on trying to get under the Buckby players skin, with sly off the ball incidents rather than actually playing any rugby. Jake O’Kiefe would make a surge through the midfield and Buckby tried to go wide before another off the ball incident would see both 9’s leave the pitch for 10 minutes. Sam Evans would come on for Chris Page who was suffering from a knee injury and would make an impact in both attack and defence. Tim Dixon would find himself collecting the ball in his own 22 from a S&L kick and although one of the smallest on the pitch he would burst through three would be tacklers and get his legs going to ride out another tackle before finding the supporting Andy Oliver to run another 20 metres through the midfield. The final play of the game would see Buckby defending and getting caught holding on and S&L would slot the penalty 14-10 (40 mins).
HT
It didn’t take long for Buckby to use the slope with good forward running from Sam Evans, David Wardle and Fergus Murray getting over the gain line. Fergus would bounce one player before freeing his hands to pass over head to Andy Oliver on a nice line cutting open the S&L defence fending the first man and rounding the his opposite man to score under the posts from half way. Jake O’Kiefe would slot the extras 21-10 (42 mins). Moments later after Buckby cleared there lines from the kick off and a good kick chase would pin S&L deep in their half. Solid defence from Buckby would see and Jake Toseland rip the ball in the tackle, then run into the 22 fending the fullback off and charging in to score which was all of his own making, Jake O’Kiefe converted 28-10 (44 mins).
Ryan Clark and Craig Eales would come off getting replaced by Callum Higmam and Fred Saunders. S&L tried to get back in the game with their big forwards running hard but were well met by a green wall and barely made yards unless a penalty offense gave them a chance to kick to the corners. Another off the ball incident would bring both teams together and a player from each side left the field with straight reds. Callum Higman would start to pull the strings and moved the team from right to left and back again, there were half breaks and Buckby made it to the 22 without fining the try line. Fergus Murray ripped well out of a tackle and fed Callum to run through looking to chip and chase but the ball made touch instead. More good work from Tim Dixon and Dan Taylor gave the backs some space to release Jack Gibbins down the line on more than one occasion making at least 30 meters stepping hard inside his man only to get caught and dragged down. Buckby were very comfortable playing the rugby in midfield and keeping S&L as far away from their try line as possible. But when S&L gave their final push to get something out of the game Bucbky defended resolutely and for the last 8 minutes were mainly in their own 22 defending man for man. S&L missed a chance out wide with a forward dropping the ball with a try beckoning but would go back for an earlier penalty call. The 9 would step up 10 meters out and kicked to the touchline but it would be plucked out of the air and boomed down field, the unexpected turn over by Andy Oliver would see him get tackled off the ball so unable to chase the kick and S&L would make their way back into Buckby territory. One penalty too many would see a team yellow go to Tim Dixon and moments later with the final play called by the referee S&L scored in the corner to make it 28-17 (80 mins).
FT
