Abing(just)Done

Bright sunshine, a full subs bench and an enthusiastic crowd greeted Wheatley as they took to the field to face off against old rivals Abingdon in the first round of the shield.

Wheatley started the game well with slick hands and fast flowing rugby which put Jack Smith over in the corner to mark the perfect comeback from an injury lay off. Arron Laman missed the conversion. 5-0 to Wheatley

Abingdon responded instantly clearing their lines from a penalty with a deep kick into the Wheatley half to give the away team the line out, this resulted in an seemingly unopposed jump and Abingdon using their strong pack to drive over for five points and the conversion to make it 5-7 in Abingdon's favour

This seemed to galvanise Wheatley who remained in the Abingdon half for the remainder of the first 40 but despite this pressure, they were undone by countless penalties as they were unable to adapt to the referees interpretation of the breakdown and letting Abingdon off the hook more than once!! The continued infringements unsurprisingly lead to Wheatley losing a player to the bin with Jack Smith the guilty party.

Despite the 10 minutes with 14 players Wheatley continued to threaten the Abingdon line but were unable to convert pressure into points and allowed Abingdon one brief visit to the Wheatley half and this time crossing the whitewash only to be held up by a determined Wheatley defence. Half time came with Wheatley 5-7 down

Wheatley added Chadbone and Mpanza for the second half and upped the pace and intensity to levels that Abingdon were unable to live with and 2 tries quickly followed with Gav Stanton and Andy Willis both breaching the Abingdon defence. Laman converted one, missed one leaving the score 17-7 to the men in purple

More of the same from Wheatley who were now gathering momentum and breaking the gain line with relative ease and were now being awarded with penalties of their own but were unable to convert any into points.

With Wheatley beginning to tire and, despite the continued and relentless efforts from back row forward Dan Bland, allowed Abingdon in to their 22. Wheatley conceded the penalty are Tightwad Prop Alex Gabbidon was adjudged to not make an attempt to roll away and Abingdon added 3 points 17-10

Not to be outdone, Wheatley then produced the try of the match with interplay from forwards and backs giving Craig Buddle the opportunity to add another 5 points to stretch Wheatley's advantage to 22-10

Abingdon seemingly coming back to life in the final 5 mins and using their big ball carriers effectively were able to cross the line and convert to add some drama to the end of the game but some determined defence kept the scores at 22-17 as the final whistle blew

Wheatley continued their impressive start to the season and demonstrated how far they have come in the last 12 months.

One last point of interest, Joe Taylor made his first team debut alongside brother Cailin (both of whom being graduates of Wheatley's junior sections) and so continuing Wheatley’s rich tradition of being a family club.