Oxfordshire Bulls silenced
The Under 18 Short Season
Buckinghamshire selected a strong and integrated U17& U18 squad to make up the county colts side in the SW Festival. This age group plays without the elite players, three of which have played for England and over 10 of which currently play in a Premiership academy (Wasps, Saints etc) - even without our best players we are a small county that punches above our weight .
Our second week at Bristol Grammar School and our match was against local friends from OXFORDSHIRE, such is the draw that we all went 150 miles to play our next door county. Oxfordshire, we heard had played very well last week and were the fancied side going into this match. This season Bucks have created a tight squad, this was to be the last match for some of our lads who have carried the county badge since selection at Under 14, a loss to our local rivals was unthinkable.
Playing very much for territory our ten and nine kicked to remain inside the 22, an early drive by the forwards was judged as accidental off side – scrum restart. However the early indications of space around the edges was proved true when both the second row and the prop crashed over for two quick tries. That was to be the way in a tight contest – held by two quality sides the game moved from 22 to 22.
Pressing for a score, a wide pass by Oxon was brilliantly intercepted by the Bucks Centre who ran in an 80 meter try under the post to score Bucks third try. Once again we used our whole bench and with our second string on the pitch we conceded a pressure try from a well taken move from the base of a 10 meter scrum
A good day at the office as the bluster and shorting of the Oxfordshire Bulls was silenced