Sheffield Steel is bent by the Buccs

On a crisp November Saturday The Buccs welcomed the unbeaten, league leaders, Sheffield to Brantingham Park. The Buccs had quite possibly their strongest squad of season and the warm up was full of energy and enthusiasm.

From the kick off The Buccs showed they meant business and were taking the game to Sheffield from every facet of play, after five minutes of sustained pressure a lovely back move saw quick hands reach speedster Ali Lovel in the far corner who acrobatically dived over would be tacklers for his first ever Buccs try, conversion missed 5 - 0 The Buccs! This stirred Sheffield who look shocked that this bunch of youngsters had dared to score against them! But everything Sheffield threw at The Buccs seemed to come undone as The Buccs defended with sheer ferocity and from each error Sheffield made The Buccs capitalised and played some lovely rugby alongside some smart kicking by Sam Hassard at ten however as always The Buccs biggest Achilles heel…… penalties! From a raft of penalties the huge Sheffield pack rumbled on and scored under the post and then converted 5 - 7. Play moved back into the Sheffield 22 and from a penalty for not rolling away by the Sheffield 7, Jacob Edwards slotted 3 points! 8 - 7 to The Buccs! The next twenty minutes was pretty much an even affair with both teams playing some good rugby but from great play by The Buccs backs and more sharp hands saw inside centre James Couttie go over for his first of the season with Edwards slotting the conversion 15 - 7. With a minute to go of the half Sheffield once again rumbled over using their big pack conversion slotted 15 - 14.

The half time team talk was hugely positive as The Buccs were playing the better rugby and they knew it! The one instruction was cut out the penalties!

The second half started like the first, The Buccs taking the game to Sheffield when they had the ball & when they didn’t they defended fast and aggressively which made Sheffield make a raft of mistakes which in turn started to get the more experienced Sheffield team bickering with each other, the ref, the sideline & anyone else they could pick a row with. It must be said this young Buccs back line looked the most fluid it’s been all season, was that maybe down to the fact that five of the starting back line were part of the all conquering colts team from a few years back and they were all on the same wave length? Who knows? But from another lovely move full back Jacob Edwards put in a beauty of kick that went up & over the Sheffield team and went gliding up field, Ali Lovel put on the after burners and with astonishing speed beat every Sheffield defender gathered the ball and went flying up the touch line and over for his second, Edwards converting 22 - 14. Whist under the sticks Sheffield were heard to say “we are losing to a bunch of kids, let’s take it to them” With Sheffield now rattled & starting to get angry, they used this anger to dominate at the scrums however from one scrum they engaged early and The Buccs got a penalty just outside the Sheffield 22 ….. Edwards slotting again 25 - 14! With Sheffield angry and letting The Buccs get into their heads they started to force play and make errors, from one mix up out wide outstanding open-side flanker Jack Pinder pounced on a ball, swivelled out of tackle and fed Lovel who sprinted past desperate Sheffield defenders to slide over for his third of the day! In the act of scoring the Sheffield defender dived on Lovel with a late cheap shot and Sheffield saw this as their chance to “have a go” at The Buccs!! Bad idea! This Buccs team live by the rule…. One in, all in!! Punches and handbags were being swung all over the park and Sheffield looked shock that this bunch of baby faced assassins had this in them! Captains called in by the ref to have a word with both teams but the try stood but the conversion was missed 30 - 14! Sheffield were now fuming and were coming at The Buccs like men on a mission. From a scrum just on the half way line the Sheffield number 8 picked & went blind and with The Buccs down to 14 men due to a high tackle yellow card he bumped off scrum half Alex Edwards and sprinted in untouched for a well taken try! Conversion hit 30 - 21! With ten minutes left on the clock both teams knew what was at stake and they went at each other full guns blazing but Sheffield desperate not to be beaten & stay unbeaten were forcing the passes and from more outstanding aggressive defence lead by Jez Oboh an error was made, Jez gathered up a loose ball skipped around two defenders and sprinted in from 30 metres out! Hassard slotting the conversion 37 - 21! As it stood Sheffield were getting nothing from this game and make no mistake they are a good team! With a few minutes to go they scored two quick fire tries once again using their huge pack to barrel over the line! One conversion missed, one conversion slotted 37 - 33 to The Buccs and thirty seconds left on the clock. From the restart Hassard put up a high short kick and Sheffield caught and carried but were caught short and done for holding on. Hassard kicked the ball sweetly in to touch and the ref blew his whistle for the end of the match!

The Buccs have already had an outstanding win away at Wharfedale this season but this win today was probably their best performance of the last two years against a highly rated Sheffield team.

MOTM - From 1 - 21 every player was outstanding with Ali Lovel catching the eye with a hat-trick on debut but the talk on the sideline from everyone was the unbelievable all action performance of open-side flanker Jack Pinder who was simply brilliant one again.

Next week Tynedale at home

Up the Buccs!!