Wheatley lose tough encounter

After the 2nd XV’s brilliant opening to the 2014/2015 season last week, the team arrived in Wheatley to find that the previous week’s turnout of 28 players would not be matched and more worryingly, captain Fantastic Pete Ramsdale was not playing for the 1st time in a long time, leaving the captaincy to the one and only Jake Durbin. After managing to scrape 16 players together we set off to Bicester ready for the match ahead.

Once changed and on the pitch, everyone started to feel the heat that would stick with us for the afternoon and the ‘concrete’ like ground did not help either. After the usual Wheatley lineout arrangements were hastily sorted out 5 minutes before kick off, the team stepped up ready for the match to begin.

In his first mistake as Captain, Jake Durbin lost the toss and Bicester elected to kick, which fortunately went straight into touch, awarding Wheatley a scrum. This played into Wheatley’s arms as it was soon discovered the Wheatley scrums were looking strong, driving Bicester off the ball and winning possession back against the head. The first phase of Wheatley play saw George Turner shipping the ball through the Wheatley back line, making good ground through the Bicester team. Unfortunately the ground made was too good, with the ball being taken far from the forwards trundling away from the scrum, losing possession. With Bicester now on the attack, the defensive line was miss-matched and allowed the opposition to quickly run in the first try of the day.

As the team rallied under the posts, the motivational chat of Pete Ramsdale was missing, Jake Durbin quickly jumping to his role as captain perked the team up and marched them back out, albeit with less swearing and ‘quim’-less. After a longer phase of play and several missed tackles, Bicester had their 2nd try. This score was Wheatley’s wake up call to step up the game. Unfortunately Gav Stanton had to cease playing after finally succumbing to an injury to his knee. This lead to Phil Lasko moving from flanker to scrum half and, after a crash course in the difference between forwards and backs, Michael Martini’s first appearance of the season came at flanker. With Wheatley’s only substitution on the pitch after only 15 minutes, the team had some long, hard work ahead of them.

Despite the reshuffle, Wheatley started to find their rhythm and were rewarded with their First try which came from a strange scuffle between Olly Tyson and the Bicester full back, with the latter refusing to drop on the ball and instead watching Olly do it for him. With their first score on the board Wheatley started to get their momentum, and shortly followed with a 2nd try from George Turner running under the posts after some hard running from a pick and go at the ruck. Another dominant scrum followed after Anthony Cortez straightened up his opposite number, who then quickly went down with a neck injury. Erring on the side of sensibility, the Bicester prop left the field which caused the scrums to go uncontested (Luckily the injury was not as bad as first thought, with the prop returning to the field for the last 10 minutes).

With half time approaching and the score evenly matched, both teams were desperate for the short break to replenish fluids and catch a breath in the midday sun. The majority of the 2nd half was a very forwards orientated game with several turn over’s for both teams. With Bicester making a break through the defensive line, the tired Wheatley team conceded. However, this was quickly undone after a scrappy clearance kick from Bicester was easily caught and Josh Hillsdon’s quick turn of pace lead to a try for Russ Neal, for Wheatley’s third score.

Over the next few phases of play, the hard nature of game and pitch started to take it’s toll on Wheatley’s bodies and fitness. Wheatley centre James Bowley had an incident involving his ankle which unfortunately ended up with him taking a trip to meet the first team at the JR (#PrayForBowley). At the same time, Claude Barbe-Brown and George Turner were also down but were swiftly reminded that they were not allowed to be injured and so carried on. This still left Wheatley with 14 men, with the best part of 20 minutes to go. Somehow being a man down brought the team tighter in defence and furthermore, ended up with another try by Olly Tyson with his quick pace on the wing. A fifth score could have been added after Jake Durbin was clear through, however the whistle went with Phil Lasko lying broken after being dumped into a metal post (he carried on). The broken Wheatley team unfortunately conceded 2 tries before the final whistle and the score ended up 36-22, due to Bicester converting the majority of their tries. In Wheatley’s mind, the game was 5 try’s to 4 and could leave with their heads held high knowing that they played hard and survived with only 14 men on a very hot day.

Words – Matt Gibb