Old Habs 1st XV vs Leighton Buzzard 1st XV

A nervous excitement encroached as we pulled into Leighton Buzzard train station. Fergus Pickles
wanted to decrease his carbon footprint so brought his push bike along with him on the train. Little
did he realise a 5-mile cycle along a dual carriageway was required to make it to the rugby club. Mr
Arnott and Harvey-T were also unfortunately delayed – some excuse about a dog sitter.
The game started in a midfield arm-wrestle with some good running lines from the Leighton Buzzard
players. A well organised OH defence remained strong, until a well placed kick and chase meant a
fairly early score for Buzzard.
Some good kicks from Taj improved our field position and ended up in a scrum on the opposition 5
metre line. A strong scrum followed by a good pick and go from Clarky gave OH the equaliser. It was
very close up until the last play of the half, when Taj put a clever grubber through which was well
chased and finished by Fergus. Half time score 5-10.
Second half continued to be a fairly even contest, but with OH now going down the slight slope. A
dominant scrum and impressive line-out conversion rate kept OH out of trouble and a converted
penalty made the score 5-13. However, a pick and go try was conceded with about 20 minutes left to
play which made the atmosphere a little tense. The match came to a crescendo when a well charged
down kick on the opposition 22 fell in to Gatus’s large arms – and an unchallenged gallop to the line
ended any hopes of a Leighton Buzzard come back. Final score 20-10 to Habs.