Sat 27^th   Jan 01

Ampthill Extras 22 – Cranfield 0 

Tries: Mark McKinlay, John Roberts, Liam Duffin, Steve Marsden

Con: Dave Ratcliffe

 It was a fitting tribute to Roy Duffin that the Extras were to play this fixture at home, in front of a large crowd at Dillingham Park.

 After a minutes silence in honour of Roy the lads were really up for this game. It was attack from the very first whistle. The pack dominated the lineouts and the scrums and the visiting students found themselves starved of any possession.

Justin Cobley’s jumping ensured that his were the first hands on the ball from every throw in. After about ten minutes the constant bombardment by the Extras pack resulted in Ampthill scoring through Mark McKinlay. Colin Moore was a superb linkman at scrum-half ensuring the ball was constantly recycled in Ampthill’s favour. 

Next over the line was John Roberts, ignoring the pleas of centre Steve Marsden to pass the ball; he went alone and barged over the line. Liam Duffin was next to score. After a sweet scissors between Colin Moore and Ratty, Ratty fed the ball to his skipper to score from two feet.

 Cranfield never really mounted any dangerous attacks, on the odd occasion they did the players and crowd were reminded of just how effective Henry Breton’s tackling can be. It was good to see this American back on his umpteenth visit to the UK.

 A change of personnel at half time made no difference to the passion and skill with which the Extras played. A further try came the Extras way and along with a Dave Ratcliffe conversion the final score was 22 – 0.

 This one definitely was for Roy!!