~2008-11-15 Halbro Trophy
Buxton 1st 18 v 8 Widnes 2nd
Buxton 1st XV faced their nearest rivals in the league in their second meeting in 3 weeks at a wet and muddy Sunnyfields on Saturday. This was to never going to be an easy match for Buxton, in the 3rd round of the Halbro Cup, having narrowly beaten their Lancashire rivals away from home 8-3 in an ill tempered contest 2 weeks ago there were some scores to be settled.
The first half was a fractious and scrappy affair, with the visitors scoring first following a wheeling scrum on the Buxton 22 and uncharacteristic poor defence allowing the Widnes Blindside winger to score in the corner.
Returning to the 1st team for the first time in 3 weeks fly half Tommy Mcguigan began the come back with a penalty from 30m, following some more organised and consistent forward play led by Bartram Bailey and Storer, despite continued forward domination in the loose from Dilworth, Passey and Edge and strong running from deep by the Buxton back three of Fletcher, Gyte and Dan Corthorn the final pass seemed elusive and Buxton went into half time 8-3 down.
The second half saw Buxton back to the form that has taken them to the top of the league and unbeaten in 11 games. Bartram's Domination in the lineout and strong work from the Buxton tight five of Jackson, Johnson, Bailey, Dilworth and Mcoy began to give the Buxton backs some quality ball, with which Campbell, Mcguigan, Torrance and Corthorn consistently broke the gain line, this combined with much quicker recycling of the ball from the Buxton pack and the Widnes discipline was beginning to fade, following a series of backline breaks and quick support from the Buxton back row of Burfield, Passey and Storer a penalty in font of the posts converted by Mcguigan gave Buxton the momentum they needed 8-6.
From this point on it was all Buxton, the first try came from a series of well controlled pick and drives from the Buxton pack, giving Mcguigan the space to break through the Widnes defence with a trademark sidestep, in the resulting 2 v 1 Mcguigan unselfishly put Corthorn into the corner, with a touch down between the posts Mcguigan converted the extra points and Buxton were now looking comfortable at 13-8.
The final try was started and finished by winger Halliday, whose tackle and steal off his opposite number created the forward momentum for another series of pick and drives from the Buxton pack, an outside break from inside centre James Su and a lovely switch pass out the back of his hand saw Halliday on a sideways search for space, that once straightened gave Buxton the winning try in the opposite corner, with Mcguigan narrowly missing a difficult conversion 18-8.
This game was a testament to how far this Buxton team have come in the last two seasons, with a disciplined and clinical second half where they never looked like losing, so its onwards and upwards for the Buxton lads, through to the third round draw of the cup and away against local rivals Marple next Saturday, with their biggest fixture of the season at home to Fylde on the 29th Nov it's a busy build up to Christmas for the high flying Bucks!
