With Wheatley starting to gather momentum into the season, a trip down the A34 on one of Wheatley’s fun bus’s beckoned. With recent meetings resulting in narrow a couple of narrow victories for Wheatley, it was certain to be a tough day in the office for the men in purple.

The starting XV remained similar from the winning side against Drifters a week ago with minor changes in Tamworth drafted in to steer the chariot from 8, and debutant Charlie driving from the engine room. Another debutant Ben starting at 12, and, after unavailability last weekend, Adam taking up the berth on the right wing yet again.

From the first whistle and kick receipt, playing down the hill, Wheatley looked to play running rugby. With an unfortunate early penalty against the head for Wheatley holding on. Hungerford opted for the posts and converting.

Pressure from the restart and Wheatley recovering possession saw the Wheatley pack dominating at scrum and line-out time, and Skipper Laman shepherding his back line through the holes in the Hungerford defence. Multiple phases of crash balls and offloading that even the Fijian Sevens side would be envious of, saw a couple of Wheatley tries in quick succession.

A neck injury to the Hungerford 7 after losing a run-it-straight challenge against Alex “The Bear” Acklam resulted in a pitch change and a soft Hungerford try under the sticks. The Hungerford ten converted before another successful Wheatley restart and another sniping Jack Taylor try. Wheatley went into the half with a 16 point lead.

The second half began in much the same fashion as the second half ending with the Wheatley pack rumbling up the pitch and the purple backs exploiting. A number of phases of successful scrummaging and lineouts resulted with a penalty try and the Hungerford loosehead sent to the bin.

The next twenty minutes saw a series of errors and Wheatley shipping a number of tries in quick succession. With Jordan Hook limping off after a soft knock, Phil Glenn burst onto the scene and immediately made an impact throwing a hell-Mary for the Hungerford ten to intercept and spring in from distance. With Alex Gabbidon wanting in on the intercept action, he shortly after gifted the Hungerford ten yet another interception which was ran in from distance to complete his hattrick.

With a quarter remaining, Wheatley were finally able to stop the rot with Adam strategically drawing the high tackle and another Hungerford sin-binning. With Wheatley identifying that it was time to shut the game down, the pack stuck the ball up the jumper and bashed it up round the corner with Laman marshalling his back line to make some hard yards and retain position up the pitch. With another high tackle on the Wheatley side, Laman was able to knock over another three and close the game out.

Final score 22 – 36.

Credit to the debutants Charlie and Ben fitting seamlessly into the side, and to the impact subs of Phil “Brady” Glenn secure as always, and Keir Williams for the big shift in the front row steadying the ship late on.

A celebratory fun bus home with both Ben and Harry putting the chunder in chunder bus.

MoM Bland
DoD Gabbidon