Elks return to winning ways with 5 try haul

Following heavy overnight rain the 1st team was unplayable and the game went ahead on the second team pitch.

Elks again had a much changed team with the back row consisting of Tom Pottinger, Dan & Greg Taylor.

Elks made a good start in the biting wind and were camped in the Bugbrooke 22 area, the pressure eventually told and an overlap was created for Jack Partington to round the defence and sprint through to score under the posts, Joel Haigh added the extras to make it 7-0 after 6 mins.

The Elks spurned two more great chances as handling errors halted the attacks, following another attack Bugbrooke were penalised at the breakdown and Haigh slotted the kick extending the lead to 10-0 after 16 mins.

Bugbrooke stated to come into the game and following an attack on the right Alex Ayres was penalised and yellow carded for handling on the floor after 25 mins.

Bugbrooke tried to take advantage of the extra player but some good defensive work, especially from Haigh, kept them at bay. In fact it was the Elks who scored next following a great steal by Greg Taylor, he drew the last defender and fed Aaron Garvey to register his first try for the Elks 1st team, extras missed making it 15-0 after 30 mins.

Elks continued to attack and Bugbrooke conceded another penalty, Haigh’s kick was just wide after 35 mins.

Bugbrooke were starting to concede too many penalties and following a further infringement their prop was sent to the bin after 36 mins, the resulting penalty was slotted by Haigh making it 18-0 after 38 mins.

Elks came straight back and were attacking 10 metres out, the ball was knocked on for a Bugbrooke scrum, Elks got a good shove on and the Bugbrooke hooker stood up in the scrum and was penalised, G Taylor took a quick tap which caught everyone out and he darted over on the stroke of half time, Haigh converted well to make it 25-0 at half time.

Bugbrooke had their best spell of the match taking the game to the Elks but the Elks mobile back row were all over the pitch and earned several turnovers, Bugbrooke sent up a loose kick and a great counter attack was launched by Andor Benji, he linked with Richard Synnott who off loaded to G Taylor, the ball was quickly recycled and Jake Lamb ran a great line to pierce the defence and score under the posts, Haigh with the extras making it 32-0 after 57 mins.

Elks continued to dominate but Bugbrooke fought back well and stepped up their defence, it took until the 69th minute for Elks to gain another score, following several phases of play the ball was moved to Pottinger who burst through 2 tackles to score on the right wing, Haigh missed the difficult conversion making it 37-0.

There was still time for D Taylor to get the wrong side of the referee after being adjudged to have handled in the scrum, he was carded as the game drew to a finish.

Despite many positional changes the Elks were up for it from the start with the new look back row causing many problems for the opposition, the line out was a massive improvement on the previous week and gave a platform for the backs to work from.

Man of the Match went to new No8 Greg Taylor, next week sees a huge game at the Stute with the visit of Derby for the NLD semi-final, get down to cheer on the Elk’s.