What a difference a fortnight makes!

After an absolute pasting by Buckingham in the game before, Wheatley were looking to make amends against a surprisingly youthful Grove III team and put in a performance that they can be proud of. In a surprising turn of events, The men from Wheatley arrived at the Holton Playing Fields to find a full changing room and a full bench of 5 subs, immediately filling the squad with hope and enthusiasm for the game ahead.

Once the confusion of selection and brief warm up were sorted, Wheatley lined up to receive the kick, which was quickly gathered and then equally as quickly turned over by the Grove forwards, with Jake Durbin taking a bonk on the konk within 20 seconds. Spotting some space in behind the Wheatley line, the Grove 10 chipped over and into touch on the Wheatley 5m. Still shaken from the earlier knock, Durbin threw the ball to his own Scrum half which the Ref deemed not straight and gifted possession back to grove. A Worrying start. Soaking up the pressure with big hits, strong rucking and quick line speed, Wheatley forced the turnover and some quick hands set Oliver Tyson off down the wing to score unopposed under the posts and in all fairness, against the run of play.

With the restart gathered cleanly, the Wheatley forwards upped their workrate to make sure the backs had some clean ball to play with and after committing the Grove Forwards into the rucks, space appeared in the backline again for Tyson to exploit going over for his 2nd try in 5 minutes and sparking Wheatley's desire.

Grove came back strong, however a chip over the top ran dead allowing Wheatley to relieve the pressure with a drop out. With the forwards and chasing backs lined up left, Andy Caldicott decided that a low, bobbly 10m shank to the right would be the safer option. Amidst cries of disappointment from the waiting forwards, the ball kicked up at the last moment into the grateful Adam Muir's arms, leaving him with a 60m jog to the line. Let off number 1 for Calders!

Three Tries to the good with 15 minutes gone, the pressure was off and Wheatley started to play the champagne rugby their fans have come to expect. With the Forwards securing some clean ball and scrum half George Turner's accurate distribution, the 10, 12, 13 combination of Calidcott, Pollard and Thomas were allowed to run their lines and leave their opposite numbers in disarray, resulting in a Dave Thomas try under the posts and the bonus point secured nice and early.

Wheatley kept up the strong defensive work and with the line out jumpers disrupting every Grove throw, it was very difficult for Grove to get any momentum in the game and the mistakes and frustrations soon started to show, giving Wheatley more and more chances to score, With Oliver Tyson securing a first half hat trick.

With the Grove 10 favouring the short restart, the front 3 had plenty of chances to hone their catching skills. Sensing the imminent nailing, Durbin left the ground in order to gain some protection, only to have his ankles taken out and performed a 3/4 somersault onto his back. A Solid 7.8 for style, only losing points for not stomping the landing. Expecting the whistle to have been blown, play stopped to for the players to front up to each other, but perhaps sensing he was onto a hiding whilst also noticing the whistle hadn't gone and surprisingly still holding the ball, it was decided he was better off scampering away into touch.

Another disrupted line out and quick hands left Wheatley on the Grove 22 and with an overlap which Andy Caldicott again decided to squander with a questionable kick... Or so we thought! A mercurial chip over the top landed left the defence flat footed allowing Muir to collect and go in for another score.

The last say of the half went to Kiwi Craig Buddle, who on only his second ever game, skinned the majority of the Grove back line from inside his own half to secure a score of his own, only later to remark "Rugby's easy when you don't have to tackle".

Half time came and went with the usual talk of "its nil nil", "lets not slip up" etc etc as well as offering the bench the opportunity to come stretch their fresh legs against the tiring and injury plagued Grove team. As the second half kicked off, Wheatley continued as they left off and soon found their way across the Grove try line again... and again... and again.

With more tries from Muir and a selfish try from James Pollard (deciding to run straight through 3 defenders to get his name on the score sheet, rather than use the 3 man overlap) and with Grove now fielding a prop on the wing due to injuries, the away side's misery was compounded further as Seb Wilson, in scenes reminiscent of the superman phone booth scene, appears from the container kitted up and soon added his name to the score sheet.

The last glory of the game went to Harry Bower, who finally rewarded the forwards for their hard work, crashing through the grove defence and over the white wash to end the game 73-0.

All credit must go to Grove, who despite staring down the barrel and losing some players through injury, never gave up, never resorted to their fists and generally played the game with their spirits a lot higher than the score line would suggest, a classy outfit.

As the scoreline suggests, Wheatley can hold their heads high. To learn from the mistakes they made against Buckingham (over committing to Rucks, not holding the line, stopping communication and missing their tackles) and bounce back as strongly as they did deserves a huge amount of respect to each and every player in purple.

Great Result guys - Onwards to Harwell!

MOTM - Numerous and many. The back row of Bland, Evans and Lembke for their tireless work at the breakdown, Turner and Pollard for their quick distribution and Tyson and Muir for their hattrick of tries each.
DOTD - Has to go to Andy Caldicott for executing a perfect display of 'skin of your teeth' kicking.