Buzzards turn on the style in top of the table clash

The speed and handling of the backs and powerful straight running of the forwards was too much for the hosts, who suffered their first defeat since September.

Leighton Buzzard kicked off and, despite playing into the wind, the majority of the early exchanges were in the Rugby Welsh half. It took seven minutes for Buzzards to take the lead. A penalty had been kicked to the corner and a maul from the resulting lineout was heading inexorably for the line when it was halted illegally. The referee awarded a penalty try putting Buzzards 0-7 ahead and issued a yellow card to the Rugby Welsh culprit.

Leighton used the ten-minute period of numerical superiority well, scoring two fine tries. Firstly, after twelve minutes, Buzzards took a quick tap penalty in their own twenty-two and passed through many hands for Jacob Dove to score under the posts. Two minutes later and, following another display of excellent handling, Jamie West scored in the corner. With returning skipper James Brett converting one of these tries, Buzzards led 0-19. The four-try bonus point was secured five minutes later when Jack Adair pounced on a loose ball and showing good speed for a front row forward sprinted twenty metres to score. Again, the difficult conversion was missed leaving the score 0-24.

Despite conceding four tries in the first twenty minutes, the home side did have moments of pressure as they attempted to drive their big pack forward. They came close to scoring after thirty-three minutes when they were held up over the line, and finally scored three minutes later with a rare show of speed in the backs, leaving the hosts trailing 5-24. There remained time in the first half for Buzzards to add a further try. The initial break was from Ross Bevan but the attack appeared to have come to nothing as it ended with a goal line drop out. However, another slick show of good handling directly from the drop out, put Ollie Taylor clear to score under the posts, which, with James Brett’s conversion, left the half-time score 5-31.

Following a bright start to the second half, with Callum Creber scoring in the corner to extend the lead to 5-36, Buzzards appeared to lose concentration. Missed tackles and a high penalty count allowed the home side more opportunities. However, after fifty-five minutes, debutant winger George Ballard, who ran strongly all game, made a fine break and passed to Jacob Dove who offloaded to Wills Messum to score, -

5-41.

As tempers became frayed, both sides were reduced to fourteen after two yellow cards were shown. There remained time for Wills Messum to add his second and Buzzards’ eight try of the afternoon, converted by Ollie Taylor. With the last play of the game Rugby Welsh scored a second try to leave the final score 10-48.