The Buccs travelled to Ilkley buoyant after a good win against Driffield a few weeks ago however The Buccs were severely depleted of players with many of their starting 15 not available. Pube Von Puberson Dearing did a fantastic job of rallying two recruits from the uni in Luke Mackey & Rhys Phillips and it was game on! The Buccs started at a frantic pace which Ilkley couldn’t live with and after five minutes of pressure Ilkley gave up a kickable penalty right under the sticks which Jacob Edwards duly slotted 3 - 0 The Buccs. Ilkley restarted and kicked down the throat of Jack Pinder who carried hard & linked up with the backs, after great hands and a break up the wing by Riff Rizvi, The Buccs were back in the Ilkley 22, forwards clattered in to rucks and gave quick ball to scrum half Alex Edwards who fed fly half Sam Hassard who hit tough nut inside centre Josh Dawson on a great line, Josh span out of tackle, smashed his opposite number over and surged for the line and looked to be tackled just short but with great strength he reached out with one hand and dotted over the line!! Edwards slotting the conversion 10 - 0 The Buccs! Ilkley didn’t know what had hit them and again from the restart they kicked down Pinder’s throat and again the same thing happened! Good link play, good hands and back in the Ilkley 22! This time from another great ball from Hassard, outside centre Jacob Edwards cut a glorious inside line and broke through untouched to score his first try of the day which he then converted! 17 - 0 The Buccs & everyone was having a lovely day so far!! But this fast start made The Buccs switch off and Ilkley rally! From a scrum in the Buccs 22, Ilkley had a slice of fortune when the ball bobbled out the scrum but was picked up by their 8 who smashed everyone out the way and surged over the try line, conversion slotted 17 - 7. The Buccs went back up the pitch and from another Ilkley penalty Edwards slotted another 3 points! 20 - 7! The last ten minutes of the half was all Ilkley with their tricky half backs running the game, first their 9 showed & go’ed at a ruck when the guards switched off and he strolled over untouched somehow the conversion under the posts was missed 20 - 12! Two minutes later their trick footed fly half skipped through a gap and broke up the field and fed an inside ball to their winger who was brought down near the line, the Buccs defending for their lives gave away a load of penalties for high tackles and Ilkley from close range went over for their third try of the day which was converted! 20 - 19 to The Buccs and the whistle for half time was blown.

The half time talk was about going back to basics, building the phases and playing like we did in the first twenty minutes.

The second half was a pretty evenly matched contest with both teams going at each other but also incredibly frustrating as every time The Buccs did something good the last pass was either dropped or white line fever set in and players got greedy however debutant Luke Mackey playing in the back row caught the eye in the 1st half with ferocious defence and surging aggressive carrying and he took that ferocity into the second half, he seemed to be everywhere on the pitch, supported by his uni mate Will Edwards who was having a fine game in both the tight and loose at prop. The Buccs need to start learning how to figure out problems on the pitch and how to change things when it’s not going their way! Every time they moved the ball through the backs hands they tore Ilkley to pieces with speedsters Alfie Celella and Ryan Daniel making great yards but to not much avail as ultimately an error would happen. With fifteen minutes to go whoever scored next would win this game and it just so happened to be The Buccs, from fast hands the ball reached another Buccs debutant Rhys Phillips who with pace and power smashed Ilkley players out the way and was brought down just short from the line, quick recycled ball and Jacob Edwards went over for his second but conversion missed 25 - 19! Ilkley kept coming but like the Driff game The Buccs defence was highly impressive and whatever Ilkley did The Buccs had a defensive answer for it! With five minutes to go Ilkley looked out on their feet, another good break up the field by The Buccs and they were camped on the Ilkley try line and with a series of pick & go’s, Buccs favourite Dan “Tiny Tears” Pinder smashed over for his first of the day! Conversion missed 30 - 19! With the dying minutes of the game it was all The Buccs but again the final pass just fell short or was dropped from one last knock on the ref blew the final whistle.

Considering on Thursday night The Buccs had a 13 man team it was fantastic to see the lads rally together & bring in help from the uni to make sure we played the match! At times we played some breathtaking rugby & untimely put things right after a poor performance against Ilkley at the start of the season.

FOTM - Will Edwards - rock solid scrum, loads of graft around the park & some good carries

BOTM - Jacob Edwards - 20 point haul today with 2 tries, 2 pens & 2 cons - carried & kicked well

MOTM - Luke Mackey - what a debut! All over the park, great carries & ferocious defence!

Well done you three!