Buxton Thirds 0 Marple 19

The adverse weather over the past few weeks finally forced the thirds onto Lilliput. The narrower pitch tends to result in more forward oriented games but on Saturday both sides tried to play with width. Buxton were struggling in certain key positions and the evergreen Graham stepped in to take on the Scrum Half role whilst outside him young Gaz Nichols stepped up to play Fly Half for the first time. He put in an assured performance.

Buxton opted to play up the hill in the first half and they found themelves absorbing plenty of pressure in the opening quarter. Defensively they were up for it and despite much of the possession Marple were unable to find a way through. Buxton launched occasional forays into the Marple half but they struggled to gain their usual advantage in the scrums despite the efforts of Davies. Marples tries came from periods of sustained possession with Buxton basically running out of defenders. Half time 12-0 down and the Thirds still felt that the game was winnable.

Having failed to make any impression using the forwards as a battering ram, Buxton opted for an offloading game. It almost bore fruit as Cavanagh broke through a tackle offloaded to Fussell who found Ford outside him. Ford made some ground and as he was tackled passed inside to Fussell in support who linked with Chapman. From the ruck Rabbitts who had replaced Graham spun the ball out to Nichol and deft passing moved the ball to Ritchie who was bundled into touch.

Gyte launched an attack from full back and carved his way through several tackles, he was brought to ground and the ball turned over. Sensing space behind Marple hoofed the ball up field but Charles showing all his experience had dropped back to cover the eventuallity and launched an attack himself deftly gliding through the defenders before being brought to ground. Henderson continued the move and Austin drove on before Marple managed to snuff out the attack.

Burton showed a useful left boot and put in several racking kicks into the corners. At the lineout Buxton did their best to disrupt Marple ball, and showed a marked improvement on their own throw in.

As the clock ticked down at the final scrum the forwards went AWOL and Marple with turnover ball were able to breach the fractured defense to touch down under the posts to give the score line a flattering appearance.

This was a massive improvement on the previous week but with marginal improvements that can be made on the training ground the Thirds can look forward to winning these games.
Buxton:Davies (McDonald 50mins), Fussell c, Austin, Henderson, Cavanagh, Charles, Dilworth (Richard 30mins) Chapman, Graham (Rabbitts 65mins) Nichols, Ritchie, Burton, Gardin, Ford, (Dawson 50mins) Gyte, Team Coach S Gyte.

Apres Match

No court, everyone ran away apart from five of us.

Injury update

Tom Edge - continues to make good progress and hopes that his finger nail will have grown back in time to allow him to play next week.

Dilly has bad back

Captain my Captain has man flu

Funniest moment of the match - Bird almost falling on killer who was minding his own business with Benno a little bit to close to the touchline. Luckily bird missed killer, otherwise.......