With confidence high after a good win last week, the u14 boys travelled to the luxurious pitches of Bedford School for the Saints DPP Festival. With two tough matches ahead of them, Bedford Blues and Ampthill, the boys knew they were in for a real test.
With several of the boys noting how much like Hogwarts our settings looked, it was, appropriately, a bit of magic on the wing from Thomas Clemow that saw the Buzzards open the scoring. As he sprinted down the touchline, he remembered last week’s instructions and cut back inside to score under the posts, only to be reminded that conversions weren’t part of today’s rules! With our opponents strong and disciplined in defence, a good contest ensued, with tries from Jacob Reading and a good team try finished by Jack Beer giving the Buzzards a 15-10 win.
With several changes made for the second game, some enforced and some not, and only 10 minutes between matches, it was a slower start against Ampthill. Our opponents played some good rugby but were matched by an indomitable defence and put under pressure by the direct and powerful running of our Centres. A hat trick of tries from Ade Adebayo saw the game finish 15-5 to Buzzards (and it should be noted that the boys grounded the ball on other occasions only to realise the line wasn’t where they thought it was) but, in truth, this was a great team performance in attack and defence with many players putting their bodies on the line for their teammates.