6th March 2010


Buckingham 32 - 19 Maidenhead
(league fixture)
 

This was a game that Maidenhead lost primarily because their backs were dissected by the Buckingham backs who ran straight and passed along the line until a gap appeared. As a consequence they scored four tries to Maidenhead’s three and when that was added to the fact that Buckingham converted three of their tries and two penalties the score of 32 – 19 tells the story of the game.

Buckingham opened the scoring with an early penalty, but that was matched by Maidenhead who won a set scrum on their opponents line from which Lester Martin drove over under the posts. Unfortunately, a few minutes later that was matched when a Buckingham centre ran almost unhindered through the Maidenhead defence, which was all over the place, to touch down. Maidenhead responded with some good, quick rucking that got the ball to Lester Martin on the Buckingham 22 metre line and with some space in front of him. He duly obliged and beat the covering defence to make the score 12 – 10 to Maidenhead. Two scores followed before the halftime break both to Buckingham. A penalty and a converted try, again scored by the backs running through gaps in the Maidenhead defence. This made it 20 – 12 to Buckingham and it seemed clear that the first score in the second half would be vital. But it didn’t turn out that way.

Maidenhead scored first when Paul Jones went in under the posts to make it 20 – 19. Game On? Well, yes, but it was Buckingham who scored two more tries, both through simple backs moves that found large gaps in the Maidenhead midfield defence to run out winners at 32 – 19. However the last 10 minutes saw Maidenhead shake off the lethargy that had seemed to infect them for most of the 80 minutes when they battered the Buckingham line and defence, very nearly going over two or three times, retaining the ball brilliantly and displaying how they might have won the game if they had played like that for more than 10 minutes.

Buckingham were a good side and deserved the win.

Written by David ‘The Pencil’ Anthony.

 
(Match statistics)