David Buckingham, Wake Rugby Class of 2007, Continues to Impress at Men's Club Level

Courtesy of erugbynews.com

February 24, 2008 - An extremely muddy pitch set the stage for a grueling, hard-fought slug match between Division II rivals New Orleans and Memphis this weekend. Both teams came to the Feb. 23 match in Memphis with 3-0 records, having defeated all other division opponents by similar margins, and both teams seemed fully aware of the stakes at hand. The game began with a New Orleans kick off deep to Memphis. The home team quickly returned the ball to New Orleans territory, however, and a penalty call against the visitor soon resulted in an early three-point lead for Memphis, courtesy of a well-placed kick by the Memphis No. 10. Memphis tested the New Orleans back three throughout the game with a variety of kicks, which for the most part were handled proficiently. Fullback David Buckingham fielded one such kick for what became a key play. Buckingham made the mark call, took the free kick quickly and made a short run to the right side before sending a kick up the sideline. The Memphis wing and fullback converged on the kick, but neither was able to take it cleanly, allowing the ball to bounce once and up into the hands of Buckingham, fast in pursuit of his own kick. He took the ball up the sideline to the Memphis twenty two, where he offloaded to a perfectly positioned Kevin Kern who turned on the burners, outran the opposing prop and touched the ball down ten meters outside the posts. A hard running Memphis pack and centers spent a good deal of time in the New Orleans 22, but a tenacious defense managed to keep the home team out of the try zone for the rest of the half, which ended with New Orleans up 5-3. New Orleans flanker Kern and the pack delivered another clean line-out early in the second half, which led to a great run and ball presentation by second row Matt Oertling. That set up flyhalf Todd Fitzgerald to get off a pass in traffic to cutting wing Rob Hoffman, who powered his way through three Memphis opponents for New Orleans’ second and final try of the day. Center Pat Schubert was good on the conversion, which would prove decisive. Memphis continued to put immense pressure on the New Orleans defense. Without the help of fresh impact reserves Jim Hotard and Mike Grisco adding to the relentless defense of flanker Brent Dempster and center Eric Mackintosh, the capable Memphis attack may well have posted more points. Within the last ten minutes of the game, Memphis put up a converted try and New Orleans lost two players to the sin bin in quick succession for repeated fouls. However, the short-handed New Orleans side managed to hang on, winning the match 12-10. The victory raises their season record to 4-0 and puts New Orleans in first place for their division.