Sat 11 Nov 2017
Wycombe made the trip to league leaders Buckingham knowing they would be in for a tough afternoon. Due to unavailability Wycombe had to travel with a squad of 17 players but hoped to frustrate the home team.
Unfortunately from the first scrum Buckingham made inroads into the Wycombe half and after a few phases scored 7-0. From the restart Wycombe turned over the ball and a good break from Ian Cartwright took play up to the half way line but Wycombe were penalised for being in front of the kicker and Buckingham kicked to touch. From the lineout Buckingham secured the ball and their outside centre kicked for position giving Wycombe a lineout close to their line. A penalty allowed the away side to clear the ball to the ten metre line but a good steal from Buckingham presented them with the ball and some accurate running lines from their backs enabled them to score 14-0. From a scrum Wycombe spun the ball wide and full back Andy Easton found himself tight to the touch line and put in an intelligent kick, a great chase from Sibu enabled him to win the foot race and hack the ball towards the try line but some good covering defense was able to scramble the ball into touch. Unfortunately Wycombe couldn’t put together a sustained attack and Buckingham cleared the ball. A lost lineout put Buckingham on the front foot and after some strong carries their number eight scored under the posts 21-0. This became 28-0 when after a couple of penalties against the visitors; Buckingham opted for a scrum five metres from the line. Wycombe initially did well at the scrum and Buckingham were forced to use their backs but a missed tackle in midfield enabled them to score. With half time approaching Wycombe were awarded a penalty and took the option of kicking to touch, unfortunately the kick went straight to a Buckingham player on the touchline who fumbled the ball and a great chase from Harry Tanner allowed him to scoop up the ball and dive over the line to score, 28-5 and half time.
At the start of the second half Buckingham continued to control the ball and added a further three tries. On a bright note for Wycombe Joff Forber who was playing his second game in the centre looked dangerous with ball in hand and made a couple of breaks deep into the Buckingham half. From one of those breaks Wycombe gained good field position but coughed up possession and Buckingham decided to put in a cross field kick. This was collected by Andy Easton who beat a two defenders and offloaded to Josh Hall (who was now playing on the wing) to score 45-10. Wycombe continued with their offloading game and pressurised the home team’s defense into giving away three quick penalties which resulted in a yellow card for the Buckingham second row, but could not add to their tally and the home team were able to score twice more to win 59-10.
Man of the Match – Joff Forber
