Great conditions combined with a good set up at Tadley made for I'm sure for the neutral supporter a quite entreating match up with these 2 BBO Premiership sides, but Wheatley will look back on the game and perhaps feel it was another one that got away!

Wheatley have equipped themselves well for life in this division and again showed in spells that they are more than a match for established teams, with set piece functioning well and able to apply pressure at the right times and a quick back line that can carve open teams at will, defensively well organised but on this occasion Wheatley were unable cement all the elements together.

From the kickoff Wheatley's attack was under pressure from the Tadley press defence with the back line unable to penetrate and Wheatley were pegged back, with Wheatley's defensive structure working well and Tadley were unable to overcome the purple wall.

Poor discipline at the break down on two occasions allowed Tadley to open the scoring moving into a 6 point lead.

On the half hour Wheatley's pack were now masters of the scrum and pushing the home side back at will it was on the 22 that Jack Taylor was able to seize the initiative and slip through the defence and go under the posts for a converted try 6-7

More of the same from both teams saw a game of defensive cat and mouse unfold and it wad on the half time whistle that quick hands prevailed and birthday boy Joe Taylor found himself in space and was able to gas the pursuing defence for Wheatley's second 6-12 conversion missed

Half time saw the first of Wheatley's enforced changes with Jack Atkinson unable to continue due to an ankle injury Simon Chadbone filled in at second row,

From the kick off Tabley came out with much more intent playing a direct 10 man game hard running and quick recycling saw Tadley cross the whitewash to get them selves back in the game converted try 13-12

Wheatley now becoming increasingly frustrated were beginning to concede penalties at the breakdown, more frustration when centre Iain Downer was adjudged to have hat to many dangerous tackles and was asked to think about it for 10 minutes.

With Wheatley now a man down Tablet again resurged and went back to a direct game plan quick recycling allowed Tadley to shift the ball wide and some poor one on one tackling allowed the Tadley wing over in the corner for a well converted try 20-12

The game came to Wheatley and some pressure in the 22 gave Wheatley a platform to work quick feet from Iain Downer saw him wriggle over for an unconverted try 20-17

Wheatley continued to press the Tadley line and found themselves frequently in the Tadley 22 but again poor discipline in the red zone let Tadley off the hook, another enforced change saw Iain Downer leave the field also with an ankle injury Ezra Rees coming on and a subsequent re shuffle now with 5 front row in the match, the frustration continued with scrum half Jack Taylor serving 10 for back chat,

With Wheatley up against it and seemingly gifting the Tadley kicker shots at the posts Wheatley conceded 2 soft pens and 6 more points.26-17

Wheatley seemingly took some of Tadleys direct approach and found themselves deep in the Tadley half and were able to pressurise the home team into continued infringements and with Tadley now also having players sin binned Wheatley continued to press, time was clearly on on the visitors side and with no time to play Wheatley were able to secure a loosing bonus point with a penalty from Aaron Laman 26-10

Wheatley may look back in reflection and consider game day was not as well executed as they have been accustomed with.

More work needed especially with the mach day mindset physically Wheatley can compete with all but today Wheatley's killer instinct was missing, as the injured players come back into contention Wheatley will hopefully see the intensity at training rise and this will reflect on the mach day performances.