City 1st XV Top The League With Convincing Win over Windsor

Windsor were only 2 points below MK in the league. The first ten minutes saw little to excite the crowd with Windsor and Milton Keynes exchanging a penalty apiece.

Milton Keynes starting to pressurise any possession Windsor had, and from a scrum inside their 22, No 7 Dan Rolfe drove forwarded with the ball for it to be fed onto Stuart Tomkinson who forced himself over the line to score the first try of the game. Nick Allen converted, adding to his earlier penalty, putting Milton Keynes 10-3 in the lead.

Mistakes from Milton Keynes allowed Windsor to add a second penalty. This spurred Milton Keynes to action and from the restart Windsor were forced back into their 22 with the home side forwards securing the ball and allowing Stuart Tomkinson to drive further towards the try line where Rob Conway finished the move to secure Milton Keynes second try which was converted by Nick Allen to make it 17-6.

From the restart Windsor kicked the ball “dead” allowing Milton Keynes to take advantage from the following scrum on the halfway. The back row broke with the ball taking play to the right of the pitch and linking with other home team forwards, with again Stuart Tomkinson leading the charge. The ball was switched to the left, and following outside half Powell’s long pass to centre Sam Viggers, Dan Pearson, playing out on the wing, received the ball and cut in at the angle to leave the defence floundering in his wake, to score under the posts. Again Nick Allen converted to make it 24-6 and despite the penalty counts being against Milton Keynes and Windsor exerting pressure for the last 10 minutes of the half, this remained the score at the turn around.

The second half saw Milton Keynes under pressure from Windsor but the home side turned defence into attack, from a Pearson kick ahead. Windsor tried to kick themselves back down into the Milton Keynes half, but the ball was fielded by winger Andy Champ on the half way line, who by side stepping and breaking tackles, set up Stuart Tomkinson to gallop majestically over from outside the 22 to score his second try which Nick Allen converted to make the score 31-6.

Milton Keynes again allowed Windsor back into the game by not retaining their ball and giving penalties away. It was from a penalty that Windsor secured the following line out ball to drive towards the Milton Keynes try line to gain their first try which went un-converted. No further score was added, despite penalty opportunities for Milton Keynes, when from a poor kick the Windsor full back secured the ball to score a fine try after a 40 yard run which was converted to make the score 31-18.

Milton Keynes picked themselves up to force their way back into their opponents’ half and from a line out the ball went through the hands to Dave Matthews who sliced through the centre to feed the ball onto Dan Pearson again taking an angled run to outpace the Windsor defence to score his second try making the score 36-18.

Windsor did not give up and it was good defence especially from the forwards that prevented them from scoring and with forward surges out of defence from the likes of Captain Richard Hill and Kieran McConnell, the Milton Keynes backs, broke out from their 22 to sweep the ball up field in at last a flowing move, that saw Dave Matthews again finding the gap for the ball to fed out to replacement Rob Matthews to race over to score. Nick Allen converted to add to his tally and to bring up the final score of 43-18 and victory to Milton Keynes.

With close rivals at the top of the league Aylesbury and Wootton Bassett losing their games, Milton Keynes have gone back to the top of the league by a slender point, next week Milton Keynes play away at Aylesbury in a league and Intermediate Cup game double.