STAMFORD COLLEGE OLD BOYS 12 – 61 LEIGHTON BUZZARD
Leighton Buzzard extended their lead at the top of Midland County 3 East (South) league with a convincing victory away at Stamford College Old Boys (SCOB). Despite the margin of victory, SCOB, with their large pack and brave defence, remained competitive throughout, although Buzzards’ speed and power proved decisive.
Leighton kicked off in dry and relatively still conditions. Dominating the early possession, it took Buzzards five minutes to open the scoring. The decisive break was made by George Rabbitt who passed to captain James Brett who scored under the posts. Brett converted his own try for a 7-0 lead.
Despite conceding an early score, SCOB began to enjoy more possession, including in the Buzzard twenty-two. However, despite a period of defence Leighton always had an attacking threat from anywhere on the pitch. Ash Walsh, who along with the excellent Arlo Union was prominent in open play, scored an excellent team try after twelve minutes. Fifteen minutes later a further long-range team try was scored by Tom Maynard. With conversions by James Brett and Ollie Taylor, Buzzards led 21-0. Between these two tries, SCOB came very close to scoring – James Brett making a last-ditch tackle but receiving a yellow card for not retreating following a penalty- Buzzards were perhaps slightly fortunate that the referee decided against a penalty try.
If SCOB were unlucky not to score earlier, there was an element of good fortune in their try, which came after thirty minutes. The referee was unsighted, missing the knock-on immediately before they crashed over – cutting the deficit to 21-5. Leighton responded with two tries from back-row forwards Ash Walsh and Matt Bloxham, both converted by James Brett to make the half time score 35-5.
The second half started well for Buzzards. With the game becoming more open, athletic strong running, with Matt Bloxham and Tom Maynard prominent, resulted in tries for Callum Creber and James Brett– with one of these converted by Brett, the score was 47-5. However, following these scores Buzzards play became more disjointed. This was not helped by a high penalty count, but also credit to SCOB who battled gamely, scoring their second try midway through the half to reduce the deficit to 47-12.
Leighton regained their focus in the last ten minutes, scoring two further long range tries. Firstly, Ash Walsh made the decisive break for Callum Creber to score, and then Kian Kelly provided the opening for Nick Englebrecht to touch down. James Brett added the conversions to make the final score 61-12.
Next week Buzzards travel to second-placed Rugby Lions .