RUGBY: Buzz lose hard-fought battle
Leighton Buzzard 10 Old Northamptonians 18
Leighton Buzzard Rugby Club welcomed back Old Northamptonians after a couple of years in different leagues.
With blustery wind and the ever present threat of rain the day was never going to produce a classic game. Starting playing up the hill, Leighton soon found that the visitors were a good well-drilled side, even if some of those drills allowed players to "accidentally" go offside at line-outs.
The female referee started to pick these up and Leighton managed to gain the upper hand with a penalty from Tom Gibbs and a well-worked try by young Sam Janes at full back.
The forwards drove into the visitors' 22 and quick ball was spun out wide to allow young Janes to go over. This was converted by Tom Gibbs.
The breakdown appeared to be the main problem for the Buzzards and penalties were soon racking up allowing the Northamptonians's stand-off to slot two penalties to make the half-time score 10-6 to Leighton.
In the second half determined Buzzards attacks could not produce the points needed, but with Dan Batchelor coming on to steady the scrum the forwards were working hard but could not get their hands on the ball to allow the fast backs to attack from out wide.
Eddie Payne was unlucky at the breakdown when he was penalised for not releasing at the tackle when he had got to his feet and was legally trying to get the ball.
In the meantime, the well-travelled Northamptonians slotted three more penalties to give the visitors the lead at 15-10 with 10 minutes to go. The visitors were unlucky to have a try disallowed when the referee judge the standoff Rose had put a foot in touch.
On one of the few occasions when Buzzards managed to attack wide Euan Irwin chipped ahead but the ball bounced inches wide of his grasp and Northamptonians cleared their lines from the resulting scrum.
In the dying minutes the ball was brought back to the Old Northamptonians winger Kingston to attempt a drop goal which was carried over the bar to make the final score 18-10.
There's more rugby reports and pictures in this week's Leighton Buzzard Observer.
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Weather for Leighton Buzzard
Tuesday 07 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -8 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: -5 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North east
