Home and Away Double against Gosford

Buckingham played host to Gosford All Blacks, second from the top of the league against second from the bottom respectively. Buckingham have a good track record against Gosford, taking the away win last November.

The weather was a strong cold wind with snow showers. And, with three internationals at the same time the sparse but hardy spectators were, nonetheless, a noisy crowd.

Not getting off on the best foot a poor pass from Buckingham led to a knock-on and a Gosford scrum. The ball quickly came out and their numbers 10 and 11, Harry Sutton and Tim Price respectively, neatly got the ball to within a metre of the try line and subsequently the first score for Gosford which was cleanly converted; Buckingham 7 nil down after only 10 minutes.

However, the next passage of play saw Buckingham’s determination drive the game forward ruck by ruck with Phil Wright, Mat Payne and Euan Prime making good yards each time they had the ball. From a couple of metres in front of the posts Matt London scored Buckingham’s first points, converted by Calum Gillie. The score was 7 all and the time was 30 minutes in.

Gosford kicked off and after some tussling ended up with a penalty. A long kick from Gosford led to a lineout only three metres from Buckingham’s try line. Gosford threw short but Buckingham’s stoic defence pushed them back. In so doing Buckingham were offside and Gosford kicked for the three points, score then 7 points to 10 for Gosford.

A clean start from Calum got the game going again and Buckingham got to the base of the ball at the same time as it landed. They maintained the pressure and swung the ball left but it got taken out and Gosford had the lineout. A clean throw-in and another long kick took the ball deep into Buckingham territory and a try took the score to 7 to 15 to Gosford with only minutes of the first half left to play.

Buckingham started the game again and quickly got possession. They piled on the pressure down the right-hand side. With four metres to go to the line Gosford gave away a penalty and went down to 14 men; one yellow card given their number 5, Rich Tyler. The scrum gave Buckingham the opportunity to push hard over the line for another try, this time by Phil Wright. The tight angle and the wind made this a difficult conversion and so the score went to 12 to 15 to Gosford and then, the whistle went for half time.

Good news, Buckingham thirds are also playing a Gosford side at home and they were leading 21 to 10 at this time.

Buckingham kicked off with Joseph Kayll making space for Seth Williams off the bench, Mat Payne moved to prop. With the wind in their favour they determinedly drove the ball forward. It ended up in Phil Wright’s hands for the first try of the half with less than a minute gone. Calum made a clean job of the conversion and Buckingham led 21 to 15.

The spectators who chose to keep warm in their car were soon woken as Gosford’s kick-off landed fair and square on the windscreen.

From a clean Buckingham lineout half way down the pitch the next passage of play was dominated by Buckingham driving forward four or five metres at a time with Gosford’s defence keeping the forward motion steady. With three metres to go Mat Payne got the ball within inches of the line and it was Jim Barker who picked it up and put it down for the try. Calum’s conversion was taken by the wind to the left of the posts. This took the score to 26 to 15.

Gosford’s number 5 returned and they went back to full strength. Possession passed from team to team as black and green lines faced each other and the ball went from one team to the other. Both sides had opportunity to move forward against the other’s solid defence. Opportunity got the ball to Euan Price who jinked and dodged up the right moving the ball into the centre for Jamie Lee to make a great 25 metres before Tom Warren touched down for another well worked try. This made the score to 31 to 15.

The play continued until Gosford’s number 10 made a long pass to their number 13 and they moved forward from halfway to inside Buckingham’s 22 where they were held up. Buckingham ended up with the ball and drove the game to the far end of the pitch. It was looking like another try as they moved forward with Tommy Oi passing inside to Jim Barker to Seth Williams to Tom Warren when in the melee it was knocked on metres short of the try line, penalty to Gosford.

From the scrum Gosford dashed to the Buckingham half with Buckingham racing back to defend. The Gosford number 10 kicked the ball forward on the right and it was an easy catch for their number 14 to run into the empty space and score a try. Not converted this took the score to 31 to 20 and the full time whistle followed.

It was a good result in cold conditions, meanwhile the thirds also won by 29 to 17 against Gosford’s thirds, another good result. It was th3en time to get back into the newly refurbished clubhouse to watch Ireland take the Grand Slam.