A&C RFC v Buckingham RFC 11th October 2015

A&C RFC v Buckingham RFC 11th October 2015

A Tale of Two Teams!

What a difference a couple of weeks make. Just as the World Cup has thrown up variable fortunes for the home nations this theme was played out by A&C this weekend on the fields of Buckingham RFC. Interestingly Buckingham RFC is actually in Buckinghamshire despite being further away from Amersham than Bristol. (This is bound to come up in Trivial Pursuit so remember where you heard it first!) Buckingham have traditionally provided a good test of rugby for us as Minis and this is no different now in the Juniors level.
As England’s Sweet Chariot has soured and rarely swung lower whilst Scottish flowers sprout triumphantly to scale greater heights our A team were to England as our B team were to Scotland.

A nervous and edgy A team, though dominant in both possession and territory, failed to convert the pressure to points and were beaten 14 - 7.

The B team, on the other hand, produced a magnificent display of selfless teamwork and running rugby sweeping aside a physically superior Buckingham side by 22 points to 7.

The A team can, however, take some positives from a negative result with some creditable individual performances as well as a moment of high drama. Commanding in possession in the first half they nevertheless trailed 7 – 0 at the break. The team came out fighting in the second half. Once again dominant in possession the impressive Tom Ates produced a tireless and skilful performance. Dan Bradshaw turned in a great performance from flanker sniping viciously at the Buckingham half-backs when they did win the ball. With 20 minutes of the second half gone we were wondering if we would ever score when, finally, one of Christian Grint’s customary attacking runs paid off with a try near the corner. With the drama building Toby Bradshaw, in the guise of the great John Eales complete with the #5 on his back, assumed the kicking position and swept over a seemingly impossible conversion that the legendary Aussie would have been proud of. Even the normally undemonstrative Ed Bradshaw was moved to nod approval of his son’s audacious imitation. Pure theatre!

The drama was completed fittingly by a tragic ending with Buckingham clinching the game in the last minute with a skilful kick and catch try.

The B team fixture was a different story altogether. Despite starting on the back foot by conceding a try early on, like Scotland in the World Cup they demonstrated that rugby is won through cohesion not diversity. Appropriately the tone for this was set by Theo Grant responding with some superb running and linking play in the backs. The forward pack, tireless in their support, were ever on hand to recycle the ball at the breakdown with Alex Greggor and Archie Palmer clearing the ball superbly against a physically superior Buckingham pack. This was the platform for the ever vocal Will Swerling at scrum half to provide valuable ball to a hungry back line. Some neat passing plays between Max Taylor, Theo Grant and Dylan Coker left the Buckingham defence in disarray allowing the mercurial Michael McKenzie Crooks to ghost in with a superb solo run from half way to tie the score at 7 - 7. Shortly before half-time pressure and discipline paid off once more with Lorenzo Bunn going over in the corner for a 12 – 7 lead.

Having recovered the early setback the A&C team continued to impose in the second half which they dominated scoring two tries to no response. Archie Binding turned in a performance to match his imposing presence and was rewarded with a deserved try with Kai Geddes touching down to complete the rout. Starved of possession Buckingham rarely posed a serious threat but, on the rare occasion, their physicality found a way through Alex Willox was on hand to defy established physics with some excellent tackling at full back. An impressive result of 22 -7 scarcely did justice to a superb team performance which all eighteen of the players in the B team can be proud of.

Theo Wetherall and Archie Palmer, represented the club in the spirit we would wish with generous salutations to our hosts Buckingham following lunch at the clubhouse thence to set off on the arduous return journey with plenty of time to ponder on day of mixed results and emotions.