Old Wheatleyans 8 – 81 Pinley
SPANKED
The bright sunshine did nothing to improve the home sides performance & it ended a thoroughly miserable day at Stade Wheats.
Once again several changes were made to the side from the week before. Andy H came into the front row to replace the unavailable Scan. Jas W replaced Murphy in the 2 shirt (Murph won’t be around again this season as he’s gone back to school to do a course on drink driving, he doesn’t yet realise the course is to stop you drink driving - not improve your drink driving skills). The McShame returned to the 2nd row for the first time in ’07, turning up to the game in his normal manner – late & arsehol&d. With Macca unavailable due to the overdue arrival of his new baby Ross moved into the back row and Si H slipped in at 8. So with just 3 of the 8 forwards from the previous week playing in the same position, the side were lucky that the back-line looked fairly familiar to the week before, until JK had to pull put ½ hr before due to a bad back (which he claims happened whilst he was in jim?!). Rich Bennett made his first league appearance for the Wheats on the wing, Rich is the 51st player to represent the side in just 12 1st XV league games.
From the ko Pinley set the ball well and gave their 10 ample time to place the ball deep into the Wheats half. After this the game becomes pretty unmemorable for the Wheats with the large experienced Pinley pack dominating play to give their fly-half a superb platform to dictate the plays.
The first try came from some weak defending in the backs, the second try came from Pinley taking a scrum against the head on the Wheats line. At 10-0 the Wheats kicked off and chased well putting Pinley under pressure, a resultant rolling maul gave the backs their first taste of the ball, a high tackle gave AB the chance to shoot at goal – 10-3. This lifted spirits a little and things were slightly more even, then DOTD contender full-back Matt Brown, with great accuracy kindly passed the ball to the Pinley centre to allow him a clear run in. 15-3.
The referee was entertaining himself with the tunes he was playing blowing on his whistle every 3 seconds.
Whistle, a scrum around the half way line to the Wheats, whistle reform the scrum, whistle free kick against the Wheats as things are a little quiet without the whistle. Wheats 9 Dean Bryant retreated the law book 10 but unfortunately he still had the ball in his hand – whistle – yellow card??!! A little outraged at this the Wheats skipper suggested quietly to himself that somebody might have something growing out of their head – whistle – yellow turned to red and the game was pretty much ruined for everybody.
With a stronger Pinley side a man up with 60mins still on the clock the Wheats never stood a chance of getting back into the game. By half time the game was already out of reach as Pinley made the extra man count.
Rich Bennett moved to 9 at half time and had an excellent game, especially considering the dominance of the Pinley pack.
The final score line did not reflect some of the work put in by some of the Wheats players. The lineout worked well for the Wheats for most of the afternoon and Andy H registered a deserved 5 points for the side following some good work by the front 8.
Centre Rich Drury also came off injured mid-way through the second half, this gave hooker Tony Harris his first league outing of the season (making him the 52nd player to play to represent the side in 12 league games) with Jas-the–adonis-Wetton moving into the centre. Not even the Great Wetton could save the onslaught as Pinley scored some well worked tries through their heavy weight pack and experienced fly-half.
The Wheats have now failed to record a W since the start of October, to help get us out of this current slump could we once again ask that players make every effort to make themselves available on weekly basis!! We need to stick together – there is plenty going on behind the scenes that will help us continue to build a successful side, even with Andy H & Haddo the average age of the starting 15 on Sat was just 22 – this is very encouraging for the future.
DOTD: lots of contender this week – but the winner is ……………. Whistle man (closely followed by Matt Brown, Dean & ………. Gillham)
MOTM: Rich Bennett – excellent second half at 9.
***NEW*** PLAYER RATINGS **** (don’t be offended – it is just jocular and / or constructive criticism!)
1. Joe Loach: 6/10. Solid. Quieter in the loose than normal. Great asset to the side.
2.Jas W: 5/10. Smooth. Adapting very well to his new position in the front row. A definite learning experience playing against the Pinley front row!
3.Andy H. 5/10. Safe. Celebrated his 40th b’day with a well deserved try.
4. Ian Hadridge. 5/10. Energetic. As always worked hard round the park.
5. James McShame. 4/10. Boozy. Failed to sober up enough to have a big impact, although for once didn’t shirk his responsibilities – turned up & worked hard in the loose and the tight.
6. Ross. 5/10. Admirable. Quieter than usual but some great lineout work.
7. Gillham. 4/10. Bouncy. Running lines in the warm up were superb – needs to play with more confidence..
8. Si H. 5/10. Steady. Suffered from some horrendous decisions at the back of the scrum. Kept going till the end.
9. D Bryant (s/o 20 mins). 2/10. Thoughtless. Actions unnecessary.
10. AB. 5/10. Slick. Not quite Jonny but getting there in only his 4th game in the 10 shirt.
11. Rich Bennett. 7/10. Performer. Great second half in the 9 position.
12. Rubbery. 5/10. Chunky. Again quieter than usual but a difficult game for the backs who were generally starved of possession.
13. R Drury. 5/10. Gasy. The Drury last season is hopefully slowly returning.
14. Ant W. 5/10. Rugged. Some brave try saving tackles – great commitment.
15. Matt Brown. 5/10. Flimsy. Little opportunity in attack, beautiful pass to set up Pinley’s 3rd try.
16. Bettsy (45mins, on for Ross). 6/10 – good performance, greatly missed the weeks he doesn’t play.
17 Tony Harris (60mins, on for Drury). 5/10. – came on and did well, especially considering this was only his 2nd game since October.
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