Supporters watching from the sideline in our Saturday fixture may have been surprised to see Littlemore shirts on both sides of the pitch! Our opponents had forgotten to bring theirs and therefore wore the rarely seen Littlemore away jersey. Thankfully there was little confusion amongst the players during a well fought game!

From the start, both sides struggled to string more than a few phases of play together. Defensive pressure and handling errors resulted in dropped balls and scrums throughout the game. This, in turn, increased the importance of the set piece and territorial kicking game. Our scrum stood up well to the test despite the well coordinated pushing of Buckingham.

We were able to hold Buckingham out during the initial period of the match, although they did end up scoring the first points. Undeterred, we kept the ball in play tight with runners off 9 and 10 and began to progress up the pitch. Buckingham were contesting almost every ruck but were judged to have stepped over the mark on several occassions which gave us the opportunity to kick for touch close to their try line. A driving maul gathered most of our players at one point as it headed towards the line but was eventually held up and then we were repelled. A second entry into the Buckingham 22 proved more fruitful, with a tap and go penalty providing the impetus for several big carries and a try under the posts!

A yellow card in the middle of the first half (see Honourable Mentions below) left space in our defence which was succesfully exploited by Buckingham and so we went into half time narrowly down.

We remained competitive during the second half, with line breaks coming from both sides. Buckingham were able to make the most of their opportunity while we struggled to maintain our momentum. Our second try came from Darren Massey (Flanker), who caught the ball at the back of a loose lineout, near the opposition line, cut back towards the touch line with a little shimmy and a good shove seeing him over.

After the match both sides were more than happy to shake hands and head to the clubhouse to watch the final day of Autumn Internationals!

Final Score

Littlemore 15 – 42 Buckingham

Man of the Match

David Lammin, who has been playing hard in positions all across the park this season!

Honourable Mentions

Zac, who finally wore his kicking boots

Von, whose shoulder failed to support his powerful tackles

Harrison, who thinks collecting yellow cards is a hobby