Milton Keynes were away to Tadley on Saturday 30th March and although a bank holiday fielded a strong team and after a two hour coach journey took to the pitch immediately to shake out the travel.

All previous games against Tadley have been victorious but for whatever reason, the games have been scrappy and yesterday’s game was no exception, although this was made worse by such poor refereeing with the post-match talk all about the referee and both teams speculating from which planet he came from and if indeed they played rugby there he contributed nothing to the game and seconds after the game with Darren Broddrick receiving an elbow to the face instead of a tackle and hitting the floor so quickly all were concerned for his ability to play on and the referee did nothing other than award a penalty, no yellow and no talk to the Tadley player, this was to set the scene for the game.

After a few minutes Darren stoically continues play and in answer to Tadley’s very poor style of play ran half the length of the field with some great handoffs scored on the left hand corner, putting MK 5 points ahead, his dander up and Tadley avenged.

This went unconverted but following some excellent rucking and a well worked series of moves by the pack once again on form, the ball came wide with Rob Matthews coming in from full back and a very clean run, and a well times pass to Gavin Whitehead saw MK cross the line once again in the opposite corner, this too going unconverted.

There followed some very frustrating play, with the referee making some strange and incomprehensible decisions, much to the delight of the home team who appeared on first name terms with him, even the spectators, and the Tadley players were taking no prisoners, they were very fast at the break down and won many turnover balls, and although they broke wide the defence from MK was superb and they never broke the line.

MK continued to attack and following some excellent rucking and a well-timed pass from Rob Lasbrey to captain and fly half Phil Powell who slotted a Drop Goal cleanly through the posts, with Tadley’s spectators saying they had never witnessed a drop goal previously in any of their games.

Tadley came back after the restart and once again winning the ball in a well worked turn over, with them being so fast that the referee miss the offside completely, there being no other way they could get there so quickly, but eventually they received a penalty and kicked for the corner thus placing them within 10 meters of the MK try line and the first time in MKs 22. After a clean take at the line out, Tadley moved the ball wide, and after 5 minutes of some excellent attempts to cross the line, with equally excellent defence from MK Tadley were pushed back to the 22 then the half way and finally into touch, this was to be the end of the first half with MK 13 points to Nil.

The second half was no different, Tadley were a fierce opposition with some excellent play, it was the refereeing which was frustrating the game play, Tim Parkinson and John Marchbank both took to the field at half time with John Marchbank getting stuck in with some excellent tackles, proving his mettle at the highest level, Tim made a dashing run and after a high tackle MK received a penalty which pushed MK into Tadley’s half and with a well worked run, saw Phil Powell go in under the posts and with him converting his own try, MK were 20 points to nil up.

Tim Parkinson then received a yellow card for an alleged high tackle, with the referee citing repeat infringement forgetting that Tim Parkinson had been on the receiving end moments earlier and was not a repeat infringer, once again the referee confusing everyone watching the game.

The game descended to its lowest level with Dave Brown receiving a fierce punch to the cheek bone opening a 25mm gash below the right eye with the referee not reacting at all not even talking to the Tadley players once he has seen the bloody wound.

At one stage in the second half, the MK Coach Kevin Papworth considered taking the team off the park as the game was descending into a melee with the referee not in control and the Tadley crowd baying for blood. It is testament to the game that the Tadley coach came over to shake Dave Brown’s hand after full time, as clear evidence to the poorly officiated game.

MK have a home game this week in the league versus Wallingford, so with injuries healed and wounds sewn up, there is hope for a better game with a better referee.