League opener win for Buckingham Mitres

Over the years of playing for Buckingham, I find the first league game of every season to be a gauge for what to expect for the months ahead, it gives a strong indication of the talent, the strength in depth and the desire to turn up week-in week-out and strive to make the club the very best it can be.

I have been lucky enough to play alongside some very talented players over the years, some of whom are still bringing their A-game 16 years after I first had the pleasure of pulling on the green and white.

The game against Redingensians on Saturday was an absolute pleasure to play in. Seeing a host of new faces, alongside my and Woody’s craggy features (and to a lesser extent Seth’s – welcome to fatherhood mate!), my over-riding feeling after the game was how at home the young lads fit in. Sometimes the old adage of ‘it’s men against boys out there’ can be a case of the opposition handing our young lads a lesson, and against a team of what can only be described as ‘wily old campaigners’ who knew every trick in the book and weren’t afraid to use them, I was pleased to see this young and exciting group of players overcome an initial 10 minutes of rustiness and deal with the opposition game-plan with aplomb.

Their tactics revolved around a strong line-out, through which they tried drive ball at any given opportunity, and using their sizeable pack to attack off the base of rucks and mauls, or pop-balls off 9 to break the gain-line. After the initial period of uncertainty, the Buckingham pack, with Keating, Hill and Maher to the fore, consistently stopped these attacks at source, and their strength in holding players up slowed the opposition from being able build any form of momentum. With Williams being a persistent nuisance on any scrappy ball, and Reynolds, Bassett, Kayll and Gibson driving into the heart of Redingensians pack, our tempo and pace gave them problems all day.

One of the most pleasing aspects though was the fact that we dominated 90% of the scrums, on numerous occasions driving Redingensians off the ball and but for a couple of decisions going against us at scrum time, would have been rewarded with a deserved push-over try.

The pack were not the only performers though and, defensively, the back-line superbly marshalled by Hawker and Wood ensured that we rarely gave the opposition any time to do anything.

The first Buckingham try, which broke the deadlock a few minutes before half-time, was all down to sustained pressure inside their 22. Although some of the decision-making was very ‘first league game of the season, from a team thrown together’ the superiority of the pack in attack and defence, and the strong running of Wood and Coxon in particular (a real talent stepping up and looking completely at home at 17 years old), meant that Sollars, Glendinning and Petrie all had chances to test the opposition out wide.

All respect to Redingensians, their scramble defence was epic at times, but it wasn’t enough to stop Hawker from stepping two defenders and having the strength to force himself over the line with another hanging off him, once the forwards had again driven deep into the 22 and provided quick ball.

With Petrie not being able to convert, we went in 5-0 up at half-time.

The 2nd half started with us under pressure again, struggling slightly to hit the tempo we had successfully in the first half, but once we started playing a territorial game, our pressure again told with a simple penalty opportunity that Petrie converted.

At this point, the referee’s whistle came into play a little too much, with a player from each team being binned for blocking and verbal retaliation, but with Glendinning moving into the second row to cover, Buckingham exploited space out wide for Petrie to glide over after some lovely hands from Wood and Coxon in the centre.

After slotting the conversion, Petrie was harshly yellow-carded for a ‘knock-down’ when he attempted an interception, and the extra man advantage aligned with too many silly penalties enabled Redingensians to build enough pressure on our line for one of their big forwards to barge over.

Wood’s final act was to then get his arm under the ball to stop a further try, and the forwards managed to pressure Redingensians into a mistake which allowed Hawker to kick deep to alleviate the pressure.

From there it was a case of building pressure again until we forced another penalty, Petrie slotting from wide out on the right, and as the clock ticked down, the final act was an unsuccessful penalty from a similar position.

All in all, a really good team performance, and with players due back from injury and unavailability, promising for the rest of the season. A big thank you for the two Academy lads, Coxon and Kayll who stepped up at the last minute and who both had great games.

Final result – Redingensians IVs 5 – 18 Buckingham IIs

T: Hawker, Petrie
C: Petrie
P: Petrie x 2

Chris Dicey - Skipper for a day