Milton Keynes versus Olney 13th April 2013

Milton Keynes played Olney on a wet and dismal afternoon with the game much like the weather for Milton Keynes.

Milton Keynes kicked off with Olney receiving the ball and within 30 seconds and very little if any tackling, saw the Olney number 8 score in the left hand corner with veritable ease. This went unconverted and within a very short space of time, Milton Keynes had responded with a well drilled penalty kick by Philip Powell. There followed quite a bit of disruption by Olney, dominating in the line out and in the scrum, and pushing MK over the ground very easily, with both teams well matched on paper, it was Olney that came out on top.

After a well worked set of forward moves and playing through the phases MK showed Olney that they weren’t going to have it all their own way and so it was with MK driving up field with a well worked backs move and decent hand skills, a chip over the top by Gavin Whitehead and collecting his own ball and score for a well worked well deserved try, this was converted by Philip Powell giving MK a 10 – 3 lead.

Olney were not to be outdone and after an excellent scrum, a well worked attack and some fast hands saw Olney score once again, with some very poor tackling by MK this too was unconverted. It was another 10 minutes before MK received another penalty for hands in the ruck which followed a long range well aimed kick by Philip Powell and MK had a 13 points to 8 lead although this was the last time MK were to score in the game.

What followed was a display of confidence, running and attacking play from a team whose position in the league does not display a true reflection of their abilities, they scrummed well driving MK hard and MK conceding penalty after penalty for losing their binding in the set piece and also losing lineout after lineout on their own ball with Olney being very disruptive and jumping well.

The Olney inside Centre running very hard and setting up nearly every try, although the kicking was very hard in the driving wind and rain, it was his ball handling and decision making that won the game, and so with MK trailing throughout the game it was no surprise that Olney won with a convincing 36 points to 13.

The score does not reflect the effort though, with MK camped in the Olney 22 for a great deal of the second half, it was as if MK just ran out of options and didn’t quite know what to do in the red zone, with some pour decisions and pour handling that couldn’t always be put down to the conditions, and no real team cohesion, this saw MK run out of options.

This leaves MK with everything to do in their away fixture with Grove this coming Saturday, Grove sit four points above MK now, so MK require a five point win over Grove to qualify for the playoffs for promotion, anything less will see Grove qualify and MK left standing.