Sat 9 Feb 2019, 14:30
By Matt Lewis
High Wycombe suffered a bad day at the office with a 34-14 defeat away to Buckingham. With Wycombe missing six backs due to injury or unavailability this was also going to be a tough match.
Buckingham struck first when an excellent carry from Mike Fradgley pierced the home teams defence. Unfortunately, the support couldn’t get to him quickly enough and Wycombe were penalised in front of their posts for holding on. Despite the windy conditions Buckingham took the three points, 3-0. Wycombe were given the opportunity to hit back when they were awarded a penalty. A good kick set up a lineout close to the Buckingham line, but the referee adjudged the throw not straight. A strong scrum forced the Buckingham number eight to knock on at the base. From the attacking scrum an excellent backs move saw Greg Butters carry hard and he managed to offload in the tackle to Anthony Farthing for him to score, with Matt Wardle making a difficult kick 3-7. This seemed to stir the home team into action and from a clearing kick which didn’t make touch the Buckingham tight head prop made a strong break into the Wycombe twenty-two. Although the defence scrambled back the big Buckingham forwards eventually went over to score, 8-7. Some heavy carries and poor tackling gave the home team good field position and from a scrum the Buckingham number eight picked up. He was well tackled but with support not far away a few phases later the home team scored 15-7. Wycombe weren’t seeing much of the ball and when they did either the accuracy wasn’t there, or they were penalised by the referee and it was from a penalty at a scrum that Buckingham set up another opportunity. The penalty was kicked to touch, an accurate throw set up a rolling maul which went over to score on the stroke of half time, 20-7.
Half Time 20-7
Wycombe started the second half well and a penalty gave them good field position, but a lack of accuracy meant this came to nothing and Buckingham capitalised. From a scrum in midfield some big carries took play close to the line and eventually the home team scored 27-7. The game was becoming fractious and the referee branded 4 yellow cards in a 15 minute period two for each team. Wycombe continued to work hard and were rewarded for their endeavour when some good hands put Josh Hall away to score, Matt Wardle made the kick 27-14. With time running out Wycombe were looking for another try but a wayward pass in midfield was picked up by the home team and after some good hands Buckingham went over and scored in the dying seconds, 34-14.
Full Time 34-14.
Overall Wycombe were beaten by the better team on the day. With the changes made the accuracy and fluency of the previous few weeks wasn’t there, although you couldn’t fault the effort. Next week a home match against leaders Windsor
