Wheatley got off the the best possible start battering down the Oxford door with some great high tempo rugby despite the prevailing weather conditions.

Alex Gabbidon took advantage from a quick tap penalty to crash over from close range with Aaron Laman adding the conversion, a few minutes later Laman added a penalty giving Wheatley a 10 point lead.

On the quarter hour mark Joe Taylor crashed through several tackles to open his account heaping pressure on the visitors, missed conversion stretching Wheatley lead to 15 - 0

With the weather continuing to close in several handling errors lead to several scrums with the visitors gaining the upper hand at the set piece, with the home team unable to gain traction with the ground offering no purchase. Oxford got off the mark on 30 minutes with a penalty of their own. 15-3

Jack Taylor hit back in defence 3 minutes later opening up the visitors defensive line with a sniping run adding a third Wheatley try inside the first half Laman added the conversion. 22 -3

Laman added a second first half penalty with Wheatley settling in to the groove and finishing the half 25-3

Joe Taylor got his second try and ensured the bonus point immediately after the re-start again coming off his line hunting out the ball and bursting through several tackles to score out wide with the conversion missed 30 - 3

With frustration mounting Oxford lost a man to the sin bin after persistent high tackles giving Wheatley a numerical advantage for about 6 minutes when the decisions got even up with Sanda Mpansa suffering the same fate.

Jack Taylor was the next player over the whitewash again exploiting the gaps around the fringe to score out wide with the conversion missed 35-3.

Wheatley lost the rub of the green with the official from this point with several Oxford infringements going unpunished with Wheatley now in full control of all set piece with one scrum travelling 25 meters up field. However Wheatley were unable to turn this dominance into points intact it was Oxford who scored next with Wheatley pushed back to their own line with a series of penalties and Oxford eventually touching down for an unconverted try. 35-10

With Oxford loosing players either to injury or hypothermia! Oxford conceded the fixture on 67 minutes with only 12 players still in ply and the scrums already having gone uncontested.

Wheatley performed well throughout this testing afternoon having to contest with extreme weather conditions but stuck to a structured approach and player understanding their roles and playing with patience. Ezra Rees made a huge impact from the bench after a few weeks absence through injury.

On to next week with Chipping Norton the opponents in the county shield with this fixture being played at Horspath on the 3G on Friday November 1st 9pm Kick Off