On Saturday, Long Buckby Firsts travelled North again – this time to meet Lutterworth. At number two in the table, and with eight wins out of nine under their belts, Lutterworth was going to be a challenge. And so it was, that on the day, despite a gutsy and spirited performance, Buckby could not quite match the incisiveness of the home team.

Lutterworth kicked off with the slight breeze in their favour. Buckby failed to receive cleanly and a frantic scrabble for possession ensued with neither sides seeming particularly dominant in the loose. Five minutes in, Buckby conceded a kickable penalty which the hosts readily converted to a 3-0 lead. Buoyed by this, they opened play and made an impressive break from midfield to touch down in the corner. 8-0.

Lutterworth were showing themselves to be totally in control at the scrum and, disappointingly for Buckby, also at the lineout. At fifteen minutes in, the Lutterworth 7 broke from nowhere and ran in unopposed to take them comfortably ahead at 15-0.

As the half drew to a close, a Buckby penalty produced a good touch on Lutterworth’s 22. Winning the lineout, Buckby moved forward, producing nice quick ruck ball and rapidly shovelling it out to winger Si Oakey who just made the corner. No conversion but Buckby had demonstrated their intent which lifted the side visibly.

With newly found vigour, a fine run by Jonathon Palmer produced good quick ball for hooker Scot Bayes to make a bullocking run towards the posts. Lutterworth stopped this, but illegally, which allowed Nick Denham, playing inside cente, to claim a further three points. The half closed at 15-8 with Buckby knowing full well that they were very much in the game.

The interval afforded an opportunity for some inspirational advice from the Lutterworth coaching team and the second half opened with a clearly re-focussed home side. Very soon Buckby found themselves pinned deep inside their own 22 with things looking pretty bad. An excellent clearance from fullback Ben Gilbert made under immense pressure, took the heat off for a while but the hosts soon came back to score a converted try plus collateral damage of a metatarsal fracture on lock Andrew Tarplee who played on in agony until replaced.

With new found fire in their bellies, Lutterworth reved up and ran in a series of tries against a Buckby defence which scored straight tens for effort but much less for effect. The score was now a miserable 34-8.

Respite came midway through the last quarter when, courtesy of a penalty, Buckby found themselves throwing in on the opposition 5m line. A well crafted move got the ball to front man David Beveridge who took on the Lutterworth defence and produced good ruck ball for the backs to change direction. A well timed delayed pass by Jonathon Palmer outwitted the defence and opened the way for Matthew Gibbs to make the line unopposed, bringing the score to 34-13.

The host’s lead was clearly unassailable and Buckby could take some pride from holding them to the score they had. The hosts were in no mood to comply, however, and punished their visitors with a further two tries. Final score 48-13.

So, another one which Buckby was perhaps never going to win but which was lost by a bigger margin than seemed justified.