After last week’s heroic comeback win against Billingham, the mighty Buccs faced Sheffield Tigers at Brantingham Park. The talk before the game was shutting out The Tigers and improving our defence whilst still playing good expansive rugby!

The key words were “ruthlessness & bounciness”.

The Buccs started well but sloppy mistakes kept happening just as they had the Tigers in the kill zone! The Tigers to their credit defended well & kept disrupting The Buccs at the ruck however after sustained pressure by The Buccs, skipper Pete McGlynn dotted down for his first of the day, conversion missed 5 - 0 The Buccs. The first try kicked The Buccs into action and they started to dominate play! Next on the score sheet was Alfie Celella, after sustained play in the tigers 22, fly-half Sam Hassard put in a glorious cross-field kick which Celella jumped for, the ball however landed in between Celella and the tigers winger but as ever Celella was fastest to react and he pounced on the ball, sent his opposite man one way & Celella went the other and he touched down under the sticks, conversion by Jacob Edwards 12 - 0. The Buccs had their tails up now and were playing some lovely rugby but were still being slightly sloppy with the ball either with forward passes or dropped balls! With one glorious passage of play McGlynn went through a gap and outpaced everyone in the Tigers 22 as he dived over the line he dropped the ball much to the disbelief of every one of the 2000 spectators in the stand and much to the amusement to the coaching / management team however what came next was simply breathtaking some will say Gareth Edwards try for the Barbarians against New Zealand in 1973 is the greatest try of all time, some might say Phillip Saint-Andre’s effort against England in 1991 in the gram slam decider is even better than the Edwards try but if you were at Brantingham Park on the 15th of February 2025 you were witness to try of utter genius from Dan Pinder! Tigers cleared the ball
down field, Pinder caught a ball on his own try line, he then proceeded to hitch kick, goose step, side step and dummy every single Tigers player, as he got into the the tigers 22 he had the fullback & winger to beat so he chipped the ball in the air and chased after it, as the defence got close he used the famous football move the “rainbow kick” to flip the ball up and over the Tigers players head with his feet and ran round them, caught the ball on the full and ran into the in-goal area and casually dotted the ball down! In reality everyone’s favourite Bucc picked the ball from a ruck 3 metres out from the Tigers line, a huge gap opened for him and he tripped over his own feet and flopped down over the line like big Daddy from 80’s wrestling! Never let the truth get in the way of good hookers try! Conversion missed 17 - 0 The Buccs! The final try of the half was a break from within the Buccs half, good hands found full-back Lewis Parkinson, he used good speed to outpace the Tigers defence and was heading up the sideline, he then chipped the ball round the Tigers defence and Alfie Celella sprinted past everyone to gather the ball and score under the posts! Conversion slotted by Edwards 24 - 0.

The half-time talk was all about nilling the Tigers and cutting out the forced errors.

The second half Tigers came out roaring and pretty much dominated play for the first twenty minutes of the match! They were a real credit to themselves and after a wave of punch balls and short crash balls their hooker went over for their first try of the match! Conversion missed 24 - 5! This woke the Buccs up and for the last twenty minutes they took back control of the match! After some great phase play the Buccs found themselves in the tigers 22, Jacob Edwards cut a great line and with a surging powerful run smashed over the try-line! He converted his own try! 31 - 5. The last try of the day was Pete McGlynn’s, from a five metre line out, The Buccs pack surged towards the Tigers try line, McGlynn got hold of the ball at the back of driving maul and he managed to fight through the maul to smash over the line! Conversion slotted again by Edwards! 38 - 5 The Buccs.

The score line flatters the Buccs as Sheffield never gave up but the Buccs played some really nice rugby in parts and were deserved

BOTM - Parky - In a rich vain of form & played some really smart unselfish rugby yesterday

FOTM - Dan Pinder - Can play him anywhere & he excels! Scored a try from 700m out! And very good arrows in the line out!

MOTM - Pube - turned the match last week I thought & played the same again today! All over the park with great carries & tackling! A real grafters performance