Sun 28 Jan 2024, 11:00
The Bears made the short trip over to MK for their rearranged Bucks Plate "mini league" game on what looked to be a perfect day for running rugby...
With competition rules stating a max squad size of 22 there were some very difficult decisions made with selection with sadly players having to miss out. Having got to our 22, even the starting 15 saw some tough calls but with one of if not the strongest bench of finishers we have seen all season The Bears were in a confident mood...
A decent warm up and we were good to go...
With The Bears playing with the cross wind in their favour MK to kick off...
Fair to say it was a nervy start with some strong tackles beng put in by both sides but it was The Bears to strike first after 7 mins with Harry W seeing the space out wide and putting in an accurate cross field kick which was gatherd by Alfie for the first score. Gabe with the succesful conversion 0-7.
For the next 10 mins whilst The Bears were in the asendency they were making hard work of it as the MK defence stood strong with their forwards causing The Bears a bit of grief up front, however after 19 mins following an infringement, Troy took a quick tap to Ryan who crashed through a couple of players before offloading to skipper Henno who again made good ground finally popping to the supporting Hugo who crashed over. Gabe again with the added 2, 0-14.
The game ebbed and flowed in the middle of the park and whilst The Bears were stalling any MK attack they were being made to work hard. It took until the 28th min when MK put in a clearance kick which was well gathered by Alfie @ 15 who went on a mazy run (see what i did there?) before passing to the supporting Troy and then out to winger Bob who used his pace to score in the corner. Conversion missed 0-19.
MK saw out the rest of the half with The Bears looking in control.
Half Time MK 0 - 19 Buckingham
Following a regroup and a few changes in personelle the coaches asked The Bears to be more clinical and it took just 1 min into the 2nd half for them to deliver as following some great hands Alfie was able to glide through for his 2nd with Gabe adding the 2. 31mins 0-26
Just 2 mins later and Duke had arrived as he picked up a loose ball to score under the posts, Gabe adding the extras, 0-33.
With MK heads dropping and with their smaller squad starting to tire, 10 mins later and another strong run by Alfie saw him complete his hatrick and another 2pts for Gabe 0-40. Then pretty much from the KO it was Duke who was in again and with the extras from Gabe and the game was pretty much done 0-47.
With 20 mins still to go The Bears can be forgiven for taking their foot off the pedal but after 50 mins they were able to work the ball wide for Piers to score in the corner, conversion missed and a scoreline of 0-52.
WIth age grade rules stating the game should be stopped at a 50pt difference the game as recorded as a 0-50 win to Buckingham. However with 10 mins still to play, fair play to MK as they chose to play on as a friendly which was testament to their commitment throughout the morning. 5 mins later and The Bears completed their scoring as Ryan bundled over of the top of a ruck for a score wide out. Con missed and 0-57.
3 mins later and a kick through by MK which was well covered by Harry and despite a very obvious grounding over the line, MK too grounded the ball for which the ref awarded the try which to be fair they totally deserved as a reward for their efforts on what was a tough morning for them. The conversion was added to give a final scoreline of 7-57.
Being honest, whilst there is no doubting The Bears were the better team and deserved their win, with the added advantage of more players the scoreline probably flattered them in the end but credit to MK who kept playing with their heads up right until the end.
Good luck vs Chesham next week and who knows, we may meet again in the final where if so i'm sure the scoreline would be closer.
