3rd Team Home Page

Date: 16th January 2010
Location: Olney RFC
Final Score: Olney win 63-14

Tries: Danny Loud, Marcus Carrington, Sam Bagley, Chris Parnham (x2), Josh Mason, Tommy Coe (x2), Michael Chaplin, Sean Heatley.
Conversions: Sam Bagley (x4)

It was with great relief that Olney declared two of their regulation size pitches fit for play on Saturday morning. The 3rd XV hadn't had a game since 12th December and were rightly eager to get back on the field.

With their 1st XV game called off, the temptation to load the 3rds with first team players was strong but instead the captain, in the name of fairness, decided to give Milton Keynes a chance, naming a squad of mostly 3rds regulars.
In no particular order, the team featured amongst their line up a 65 year old prop, a 57 year old scrum-half, 2 back row in their mid 40s, a featherweight flanker, a cold-ridden fly-half, a centre who hadn't been on a rugby field in over 7 months, an angry Buzz Lightyear look-a-like, a winger nobody recognised, a colt, and a second-row that has his own moon. Two rogue first team players were included simply because they were found looking forlorn in the car park.

Two minutes in and the Olney scrum was misfiring. MK turned over the ball and made a dash for the line, their scrum-half dotting down under the posts. It was at this point that Olney were starting to doubt the abilities of their somewhat conservative selection and thought they were in for a long day at the office.

Thankfully this was not to be the case. With memories of what they were were supposed to be doing slowly returning from the drunken fog of Christmas, the Olney pack found its footing. From this point on no further scrums were lost.

With the forwards providing the grunt up front, the backs were free to run. Strong attacks up the centre sucked in defenders and allowed the ball to be shipped out wide. The wingers, finding pace that surprised everybody considering the xmas excess, took off and the tries started to flow.

Nearing the end of the first half, MK launched an assault in the Olney 22. However, after a big sideways run, the attack was eventually snuffed out by some big tackles and a committed defence.

The second half begun in much the same vein as the first had ended. Olneys number 5 caught the ball from the restart and made off up the field. Gathering players like iron filings to a magnet he seemed to be unstoppable. Unfortunately this proved not to be the case and he eventually succumbed to the massive weight of those hanging from him. An unusually deft offload saw the ball taken on by the Olney centres, resulting in a try.

More tries followed, as did a quite bizarre ball slapping incident by one of the Olney props. Milton Keynes did manage to score once more before the close of play.

Glad to finally be back playing rugby, a committed performance by all players resulted in an excellent win and an entertaining match. Number 8 Jarleth McElroy was awarded Man of the Match for seemingly being everywhere on the field. At the same time.

Line-up

Phil Berry, Danny Loud, Pete Donovan, Marcus Johns, Marcus Carrington, Matt Rawlinson ©, Sean Heatley, Jarleth McElroy, Geoff Janes, Gavin Fogg, Tommy Coe, Chris Parnham, Josh Mason, Michael Chaplin, Sam Bagley.

Replacements

Farel Latimer, Jon Edwards, Chris Talbot, Sean Wilcox, Ryan Wells

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Milton Keynes report of a match that I presume was taking place somewhere else, can be found here.