Buckinghamshire U20s vs Staffordshire U20s National Shield Quarter Final
March 27h 2016 at Aylesbury RFC.
Buckinghamshire U20s made history by reaching the semi-finals of the National U20s Shield on Sunday by grinding out a hard fought win against Staffordshire.
Bucks were under pressure from the off with the Staffordshire team pinning them in their 22 for most of the first 20 minutes. Big scrummaging from Staffordshire put the Bucks pack under the cosh but they responded magnificently, growing into the game as the minutes progressed and Staffordshire left with only a penalty scored at 5 minutes making the score 0 – 3.
Bucks then regrouped and attacked themselves, only to be repeatedly pinged at the breakdown. Giles Westgarth was forced from the field with ankle injury and was replaced by J G Gibbs. The squad persevered and attacked again, this time forcing Staffordshire into infringing and the resulting penalty by Alex Shearer put the scores level at 30 minutes. Staffordshire attacked from the restart but the ball was regained by Bucks who again put together a lovely passage of play moving the ball across the field, retaining possession and then recycling to the centres and finally across to Jack Hockin who placed the ball over the line on the right to bring the scores to 8 – 3 to Bucks at 37 minutes. The conversion was difficult due to the swirling winds of Storm Katie and Shearer couldn’t add the extras. Bucks finished the half in possession and went in at the break 8 – 3 ahead.
The second half found Staffordshire applying pressure again, but the Bucks team were resilient and again found some great passages of play which paid off at 51 minutes with J G Gibbs crossing the line to add Bucks 2cnd try and make the score 13 – 3. Again the conversion proved elusive.
Bucks regained possession from the restart and started to move the ball forward when, on the halfway line, Staffordshire snatched an intercept through their number 13, who made it to the line despite a heroic chase by Shearer. The try was converted and Staffordshire were back in the game at 58 minutes; 13 – 10.
Bucks attacked with renewed vigour and in the next 15 minutes crossed the line twice but both tries were denied after the referee decided they were held up. Much credit must go to the Staffordshire player who achieved the hold up of Ziana Alexis’ attempt! Bucks made the most of the bench and used all but one of their subs to close out the game. Even so, the last 3 minutes proved nervy as Staffordshire attacked and Bucks needed two attempts to finally close out the game and earn themselves a home semi-final against Durham U20s on 10th April.
Every player made a contribution to this win and even Matt Dennis, who didn’t get onto the pitch, received rousing support from the Aylesbury RFC contingent. This was a true test of the mettle of the players and showed their determination to progress in this competition. We look forward now to representing Buckinghamshire in the Semi-Final at Aylesbury RFC on 10th April.
Bucks U20s Squad
Ziana Alexis, Cam Baker, Joe Batt, Matt Dennis, Piers Dyer, Jack Hockin, Daniel Hostetler, James-Giulio Gibbs, Luke Jordan, Connor McKillop, Tom Pearce (c), , Ollie Potter, Callum Reid-Jones, Bruno Renucci, , Alex Shearer, Joe Sole, Max Sutton, Rob Waldron, James Walker, Giles Westgarth, Brad White, Tom Young