Sun 1 Oct 2023, 11:00
Having suffered 2 very narrow defeats last season Buckingham knew they would be in for another tough encounter as they travelled to Leighton Buzzard for their 2nd fixture of the season.
Early prep was not good as they lost a number of players to injury following a tough midweek school game and things got worse on the morning of the game as they lost no less than 4 more players through injury or illness, but with 18 boys they hit the road...
Its fair to say that during the warm up the boys were not filling the coaches with confidence as they carried out some very lethargic activity however Henno in his first game as captain rallied his troops as they took to the field.
With the bears kicking off against the strong wind, the early exchanges were in the middle of the park as both sides sussed each other out. There were chances for both teams but with Buckingham having the better of them as on a couple of occasions only handling errors let them down with tries looking probable.
7mins in and the mighty Buck were first to break the deadlock as a scrum against the head enabled Connor to pick and go with great support from Troy who gathered the off load to cross the whitewash, Harry W converting 0-7.
Just 4 mins later and the bears were over again as Stan B drove up the middle dragging multiple would be tacklers with him, the ball was quickly spread down the line for winger Zach to show a clean pair of heals (see what i did there?) to cross the line and having the sense to make the conversion that much easier as he dotted down under the posts with Harry W sucessfully converting 0-14
This 2nd score seemed to spark Leighton Buzzard into action as they had the better of the rest of the half and after 17mins were rewarded with a try of their own, conversion missed 5-14.
After 22mins following another handling error in the Buckingham 22, Leighton Buzzard took advantage of the error as their No 8 picked up from the base of scrum and crossed under the posts, suprisingly the conversion was missed hitting the post 10-14.
Deep into 1st half injury time, things got worse for the bears as inside the Buckingham half an off the top lineout followed by some quick hands allowed the Buzzard centre crash through for a well worked try and complete their comeback, with a successful conversion the bears went into half time 17-14 down which was disappointing considering the strong start.
Half Time Leighton Buzzard 17-14 Buckingham
A chance to regroup and the introduction of the "bomb squad" as the front row was replaced saw Buckingham start the 2nd half with some added vigour and following a strong break by ET he managed to offload to Connor for the first try of the half with Harry W adding another sucessful kick 17-21 to get Buckingham back in the lead.
The rest of the half saw both teams have opportunities but some great pressure resulting in lots of scrums saw a pretty even contest up until the 27th minute when some soft Buckingham tackling saw Leighton Buzzard crash through following another good run to take them back into the lead and with the added conversion it was 24-21. With time running out Buckingham had 1 final throw of the dice and having had success wide out throught the game an excellent scrum saw them secure the ball and some great vision and a perfectly weighted kick saw Archie our No 8 come Fullback put in an excellent kick to the corner for flying winger Zach to chase and with a fortunate bounce he was able to gather the ball and cross over for what was to be te winning try. WIth Harry W taking his alloted time (inc a reset for a premature charge down) he showed great game management skills by running down the clock and complete a 100% success with the boot to give Buckingham a hard fought but deserved win 24-28 much to the delight of all players and the travelling support.
Overall a great game of rugby with both sets of boys putting their bodies on the line but well done to the bears for not giving up and proving why you should always play to the final whistle.
Congratulations to Archie and ET who were named MOTM by the Leighton Buzzard and Buckingham coaches.
The solid start to the season gives Buckingham confidence as they travel again this week to what will be a very strong and well drilled Marlow side...
