Rugby St Andrews 19 – 12 Old Wheatleyans
Winter Blues
A mixed Old Wheats 1st / 2nd XV took on a mixed Rugby St Andrews 1st / 2nd XV in a well contested match.
Old Wheats started brightly and in the second play of the match went through five or six phases thanks to some excellent forward play, however the story for the afternoon would be that small mistakes at crucial times would let them down.
After 10 minutes of Old Wheats pressure, Rugby St Andrews cleared their line with a long up field kick, a nasty bounce beat winger Ant and the opposition went in under the posts against the run of play for the first score. This gave Rugby a lift and the game became more evenly contested with Rugby the next on the score sheet following some poor defending on the line by the Wheats. Conversion missed, 12-0. The Wheats then lifted themselves and started to dominate in ten scrums, they were awarded with an excellent try by Greg Weaver just before half time – 12-5.
Turning round with the wind at their backs and slope in their favour things looked positive the Wheats. The next 20 or so minutes were spent camped in the Rugby 22, but several small mistakes prevented them for scoring until ….. a solid scrum, perfect pass from scrum-half Greg Weaver to Fly-Half Richard East, perfect running line from centre Marc Rubery to cut the defence in half 12-12.
You can probably guess the rest – victory in sight – on top – let’s have a hamlet cigar!
The referee moved the off-side line forward 10 or so yards so as to allow Rugby to charge down a clearance and dot down for 5. Conversion was well slotted – 19-12.
A little afraid of winning, the Wheats seemed content with this and the remainder of the match was played out with neither side dominating & both sides looking like they wanted to get in the bar to catch the end of the England game.
A draw would probably have been a fair result, but the game was played in good spirit and gave everyone a run out.
A special mention to Winger / Centre / Prop Jas Wetton who had an excellent game at hooker, but we won’t mention the throwing in!
Other players worthy of a mention are James Gillham and Marc Rubery who formed a new centre partnership. At times the crowd had to look twice as this long haired lad boshed his way through defenders – Gillam’s becoming a man? Marc Rubbery showed real commitment during the second half and probably recorded the highest tackle count on the field.
The Wheats must learn to play for 80 mins if things are going to improve.
MOTM: Matt Rice’s mates who provided the banter on the side line & offered every encouragement to the referee.
1. Joe Loach 2. Jas W 3. Paul H 4. Matt Rice 5. D Beere (K Smith 40mins) 6. James 7. Dan 8. Hasto 9. Greg 10. Easty 11. Ant 12. Gillam 13. Rubery 14. Browny 15. Dunc Keenan
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