The game didn't start great for Wheatley loosing Spencer Bailey inside of five minutes to injury and conceding a penalty on the sixth to go down 3-0 and give the advantage to the hosts.

Wheatley hit back from the restart with a well worked try after disrupting from the re-start there subsequent breakdown saw the ball move quickly down the blindside with Sanda Mpanza timing the pass perfectly to Chris Turner who ignited the afterburners to round the defenders to score on his first team debut.

With in a few minutes Drifters re-established the lead with the home team benefiting from poor first up tackling, Drifters were able to off load the ball and go in unaposed for a converted try. 10-5

Wheatley now applied more focus, with the ball in hand looked very sharp. moving the ball from the breakdown Wheatley put pace onto the ball, Tom Heydon made ground after cutting a hard line off of Fly Half Toby Butler, Haydon off loaded to Taylor who intern put Jordan Hook through to score with Laman adding the conversion 10-12

The remainder of the half remained scoreless but with Wheatley solid in defence and happy to soak up the attacking onslaught. on occasion venturing into the home teams 22 but to often letting Drifter off the hook. at halftime Wheatley were in the ascendancy.

At the re-start it was Drifters who opened the scoring with a well taken penalty from distance 13-12 10 minutes later it was Toby Butler who added his name to the team sheet with phases of play coming together Wheatley allowed the ball to flow through the hands and Laman assisted Toby over the line an expertly struck conversion put Wheatley into a 13-19 lead from tis point Wheatley were able to wind the screw, with the set piece functioning well and Drifters discipline waining Wheatley were a constant threat in the home teams 22, Hook was the next name on the team sheet and it was more of the same from Wheatley with the ball now moving freely between forwards and backs strong carrying from Michael Ridge and Alex Gabbidon was putting Wheatley into space and with the ball moving wide and Hook with plenty to do but was able to round the defence to collect his brace, Laman added the conversion 13-26

Wheatley had further chances to extend the lead but to Drifters credit their defence stood firm and the purple men were kept at bay. it was on the 79 the minute that Wheatley were piling on the pressure and were eventually rewarded with Tom Heydon grabbing try from close range and Aaron Laman added the conversion 13-33.

A great performance against a resilient Drifters side Wheatley played with real freedom today and with Arron and Toby controlling things at 9-10 Tom was a perfect outlet at 12 adding a target for both forwards and backs alike, Strong running from Smith Moose and Gabbidon put the opposition on the back foot and produced a platform from which to operate. All round great day bring on the next.

MoM Moose
DoD Joe Taylor