Wheatley 30 - 17 Abingdon

This Saturday Wheatley hosted Abingdon. Wheatley knew Abingdon’s league position did not represent how strong a team they are and Wheatley expected a physical encounter, as was highlighted in Joe’s team talk. Banton added his own low syllable words of advice shortly before kick-off.

It might have been the team talk, it might have been that they were angry about their cup exit but Wheatley’s start was impressive. They moved the point of attack and recycled the ball in a controlled way making steady progress towards the try line. However Abingdon held out and Wheatley settled for an early penalty converted by Jason Layman. Abingdon rallied and quickly stuck back with a penalty of their own. But Wheatley continued as they had started. Gav Stanton and Jase marshalled the mobile back row of Ben, Adam and Barney who were in so many places on the pitch some though there were two of each of them. The older (if not wiser) tight five dominated the rucks. The pressure told and the forwards let the backs have a play with the ball at exactly the right time to move through the hands Jordan Mayling crossed for a great team try. This followed another period of Wheatley possession but they were denied a further score due to a forward pass and being held up over the line. Then Abingdon struck back. Their backs showed impressive pace from within their 22 and touched down under the sticks for a nice try. Then another set-back for Wheatley when Gav “Bruce” Belcher suffered (another) injury in a tackle. He left the ground for Sports Direct to use his loyalty card and buy the knee support Jase recommended which matches his hat. Ben Kelsey then ran half the pitch handing off several players before waiting for them to catch up only to hand them off again and cross the line. But before touching down he was adjudged to have knocked on. The ref declined the TMO - a little harsh, but perhaps karma for Didcot away? At the end of an entertaining half the game was in the balance with Abingdon 10-8 up and Ben still panting from the aerobic exercise of running so far.
Wheatley started the second half at lightning speed with Dan Rule chipping through and looking certain to recover his kick but he couldn’t keep up with Lewis Mayling who beat him their and flopped over the line. Jason converted added the extras. The game was getting more physical and Abingdon’s centre crashed into Barney, but Barney just shook his head and carried on up the field and when the ball found Tippet he showed a clean pair of heels to Abingdon’s backs and crossed in the corner. Wheatley were turning the screw, especially up front and a great nudge in the scrum caused Abingdon to fail to control the ball at the back which allowed Tippet’s quick thinking to score his second.

Abingdon did not give up and their backs continued to show impressive line speed. Wheatley gave away what seemed like a dozen penalties for being in front of the kicker and Abingdon made use of the territory and some tricky set moves to another converted try.

Wheatley then showed some impressive defence to deny any further scores from Abingdon and run out 30-17 winners.

Serm summed it up at the end by saying “everyone, except me, did something today which your team mates will be impressed with”. Those words were true, apart from the fact that there were a few admiring some of his old tricks!