Wheatley II 73 - 15 Harwell II

On a sunny, but windy November afternoon Wheatley 2s welcomed Harwell 2s to the Holton Playing Fields.

Wheatley 2s were bursting at the seams with players returning from injury and those returning to the club, most notably Ramsdale Jnr, stepping in to fill his absent Father’s shoes. As well as welcoming back players, it was also time to say goodbye to some as it was Mezz’s last game for Wheatley before he travels south or north with his new job.

With kick off looming, Ben Kelsey made an appearance ready to flex his muscles in any position, apart from prop, hooker, lock, eight, nine, ten, wing or full back.

Straight from kick off Ramsdale Jnr collected the ball and went on the rampage having to be stopped by three of the opposition. However, Harwell’s forwards, who by the looks of things have seen many rugby matches, were equally as aggressive and many of the Wheatley players would soon be sporting go faster stud marks on their backs and legs.

With Andy Caldicott and his knees bossing it at scrum half, the ball was soon out in the back’s hands with Andy Tippet, now learning to play 10, scoring unopposed. However, he did not think it was necessary to score under the posts as who needs the extra 2 points?

With play back under way another marvellous break from Ramsdale Jnr was ended as he was brought down inside Harwell’s half. He looked for offload but was only greeted by the mighty prop, Joe Hyde, who was rapidly losing speed in his aim to reach the try line. The sell-out crowd was cheering him all the way, but after 5 glorious steps, he was tackled.

The game soon became scrappy, in both senses of the word, with no real clean ball and both Harwell and Wheatley players constantly discussing who had the best handbags at each ruck.

Half time arrived with the score being around 19-5.

Wheatley were forced to make changes as the old guard were starting to break, giving those returning from injury the chance to test their legs.

From the re-start it was clear that our backs were starting to click which resulted in many tries being scored. Most notably Kelsey ran a huge loop through many tackles to score. However, before Kelsey put the ball down, Harwell’s 14 thought he would try and stop the world’s strongest man at 105kg, he didn’t.

To Harwell’s credit, they were not fazed and their forwards absolutely bossed ours in the scrum and rucks (when they got there). With a scrum some 20 metres short of Wheatley’s try line their forwards put in a massive drive, forcing Wheatley back and back and back and back until 1 metre out the 8 went for the line and popped it another to score. BeeGee later commented that he did not enjoy that particular scrum.

With tired bodies and more handbag talk at the rucks, a certain Anthony Cortez was giving every Harwell player his 1000 yard stare. This must have made Cortez forget that he was playing rugby and when his opposite number made a run for it; he clothes lined him – something his fellow compatriot Hulk Hogan would have been proud of. This resulted in a yellow and Wheatley now done to 14.

This did not affect Wheatley’s performance, especially the backs, with Dave Thomas finally receiving the ball in hand (yes, Kelsey either passed the ball, or was missed out completely) and managed to score in the corner. This resulted in 5 points to Wheatley and an injury to Dave.

With minutes left on the clock, Wheatley had one last attack. With a boot of the ball into Harwell’s 22, Wheatley gave chase. Muir collected the ball but was tackled in the process and with a screaming James Bowley the offload was collected and the touch down followed, giving Bowley his first score of the season.

Final score 73-15.

A great result for our 2s and a massive thank you to Harwell who’s forwards put in one heck of a performance.