Isham completes hat-trick as Bulls beat Buckingham

Bulls scored ten tries as they beat newly-promoted Buckingham 68-21 in Saturday’s fixture at the DCS Stadium.

But it was Buckingham who started the brighter, Chris Reynolds scoring in the corner after some sloppy defending and Ben Grant-Adamson converted.

Bulls were soon back on level terms, James Cullen was yellow carded when he made no attempt to roll away and from the resulting penalty and subsequent line-out, Isham drove his way over from close range. Tommy Gray converted. Bulls took the lead when Chris Davies opened his account following another line-out and Gray converted.

Gray scored a brilliant try. Gathering from deep in his own 22, Jack Briggs burst through the Buckingham defence before off-loading to Gray who sprinted more than half the pitch to score and Duncan Leese converted.

The points continued to come. Tom Macdonald stole the ball and Dan Brady broke down the left before passing inside for Ben George to open his account and Leese converted.

Bulls scored again just before halftime when James Jennings and Alex Caviezel Cox made great off-loads before Isham went over in the corner and Leese converted for a 35-7 interval lead.

Two quick yellow cards at the start of the second half put Bulls on the back foot. Dan Kirwin was harshly carded for not rolling away and Callum Horne for collapsing a maul, the latter resulting in a penalty try.

Buckingham had their tails up and sensed a comeback. After a good break from Luke Budd down the left Buckingham switched the ball to the opposite flank for Reynolds to score and Grant-Adamson converted.

Once they were back to a full quota, Bulls got back on the front foot. Line breaks from Leese and Davies got Bulls into the opposition 22 and Jack Briggs breezed through to score, with Leese converting.

From the restart, Leese broke into the Buckingham half. The ball was recycled and passed out wide for Isham to kick through for Briggs to gather and release Kirwin who cruised his way over and Leese converted.

Matt Goode came on and burst through before finding Leese who set up Jennings to score on his debut and Leese converted.

As Buckingham tired, Jennings burst through a gap before drawing the last man and releasing Goode who beat Gray in a race to the line.

In added-time Isham completed his hat-trick when he broke through a tackle to score under the posts and Leese added the extras.