First Half

For the third time in a row Milton Keynes under 15s contested a Bucks Cup semi final, and this time the 2009-2010 League Champions got through to the final, after defeats in the last two years to Olney and Amersham. In the end it was pretty emphatic but it was marred by injuries to a game Aylesbury side, and by a certain amount of handbags at dawn after a stray knee made contact with Bollom’s head towards the end of the first half. MK kicked off on a cold, dry morning and on a pitch still muddy in places despite the good week’s weather. Both sides were eyeing each other up and there was a lot of midfield impasse and rather needless kicking until Aylesbury were awarded a penalty for a high tackle near the MK twenty-two. The tap went to a big Aylesbury forward who charged, was held up, but threw a neat offload and found a smaller lad who knew where the line was and duly took the lead. An excellent conversion followed, giving Aylesbury the full seven, and at this point they were well worth their lead.

Whether it was over-confidence, cold hands, or a Saturday night on the teenage tiles, this was not the script MK had written for themselves. They were looking disorganised and it was time for a reality check. Who better at a time like this than the pack and hooker Mad Dog Marchbank himself to provide? They won two consecutively against the head, and though nothing came from the first the second time Duffin found Friend who passed long, forgetting the centres, to winger Maiden. He overran it at first but retrieved it and went over powerfully in the corner. The difficult conversion was missed.

Aylesbury continued with most of the possession and territory, and both sides’ kicking was less than strategic. Aylesbury looked good in the loose with MK looking to the sky rather than for the ball. And they were missing their tackles too regularly for comfort. Then from their own half MK won a scrum and Duffin found Friend. Two neat dummy runs and this allowed the fly-half space to motor into the Aylesbury half. Though he was tackled he had support and Maiden picked up to score in the corner. A number of players contributed to this try with dummy runs but all credit to Maiden and Friend for the determination, but not the missed conversion.

Shortly afterwards an excellent take by Holliday in the line allowed the ball to go down the MK line through Friend, Bollom, and Fisher to Diaz, and MK won a scrum near the Aylesbury line. This was untidy and a ruck formed at which Bollom received a stray knee in the head and mayhem resembling that in the high veldt in 1974 broke out which was only resolved by the intervention of the coaches. The game was restarted with an Aylesbury penalty. The victim was adjudged to have gone in from the side. Sore pride as well as a sore head. Aylesbury found touch but their hooker could only find Holliday in the lineout and the ball went down the line again to Maiden who went over for his hat-trick. The tricky conversion was missed again.

Three tries to one yet MK were still not firing on all cylinders. But their counter attacks were incisive and perhaps we should give Aylesbury plenty of credit. Their player who made their try had to leave the field with a twisted knee but they certainly kept wanting it. One more try, though, and they’d be pretty well buried. Just before half time would be a killer. And it came. They were awarded a penalty but failed to find touch. Duffin passed to Maiden and off he went through four attempted tackles to score his fourth of the half, this time under the posts. Friend rediscovered his kicking boots to convert, and the whistle went.

Second Half

Sadly it just got worse for Aylesbury as one of their players was down and required an ambulance (ribs we think), and the MK support network was called upon to move the flags, ropes and post protectors to an adjacent pitch for the second half as the poor lad lay on the turf awaiting the ambulance. This took a while and MK wisely repaired to the changing rooms as the wind was cold. Inexplicably when given choice of end on the new pitch MK opted to continue to play into the wind, and maybe it was this that contributed to a pretty disjointed second half punctuated by a large number of penalties for mainly offside, and another nasty Aylesbury injury.

Aylesbury kicked off and a series of errors saw a penalty, a knock on, offside, a high tackle and another knock on as neither side could grab a hold on the game. With a lead of four tries to one perhaps it didn’t matter that much but there was a certain frustration all round that things were just not working out and again a spot of handbags broke out. Your reporter scribbled down “midfield nothings”. Positional changes and substitutions for MK were tried to make things happen. Then a powerful tackle from Wells floored the Aylesbury fly half and a paramedic was called from the other field to deal with a possible dislocated shoulder. Thankfully the player was able to walk off. Holliday was again going well in the lineout and Lewis kicked MK to the Aylesbury twenty-two but a series of penalties for offside took the visitors to the MK five metre line before Duffin cleared to touch.

The lineout was followed by a scrum and Wells made a superb break at speed from the set piece which gave him a couple of options. He took the main chance and passed to Chiromo who ran gazelle-like around the Aylesbury defence to run in MK’s fifth. Wells followed him all the way and gave him a huge bear hug in celebration but Lewis, too, had misplaced his kicking boots.

There was not long to go and an MK penalty allowed their backs to pass the ball down the line right to left and then left to right. This found a second row forward and a fullback in the line and neat hands between Holliday to Bollom, and back, and back, and back –somehow Holliday kept the ball in play – allowed him to touch down for only his second try ever for the club. The kicking boots are still missing.

A little bit ugly then but the final beckons on March 28th at Buckingham RUFC, kick off 10-00 am, all welcome. As your correspondent reported in his first report of the season on October 4th, “the Double is still on”. What fun it would be if, like that game, it was to be Olney again, but they’ll have to see off the Chilts first. It was not a bad-tempered game but there was a lot riding on it and things did tend to flare up. Aylesbury suffered the injuries so better again that the injured are in good spirits and on the mend. And that MK move up a few gears for the final.