Sat 4 Nov 2023
Wallingford hosted unbeaten league leaders Oxford Quins II to the ‘Croft on a sunny autumnal afternoon, as the hosts looked to build on their win at Milton Keynes in the previous round of fixtures.
In selection, Wallingford were able to field a strong squad with only a handful of regulars unavailable, with Sam Botting, Jayden Grimes, James Porter, Jack Payne and Charles Campbell returning to the starting XV after missing the Milton Keynes game.
Wallingford kicked the game off and were soon on the scoreboard within the opening 2 minutes.
After Quins fielded the kick off and kicked clear to halfway, a half charged down kick by Campbell fortuitously landed in the hands of Lawson Dallimore, who turned and took play up towards the Quins twenty-two. After a couple of phases, the ball went through several sets of forwards’ hands before captain James Norris put Felix Cotton in for a try in the left corner for an unconverted try.
But Quins soon showed why they are top of the league as they then dominated possession and territory for the next 20 minutes as the hosts began to fall foul of the referee. But for all their possession, they ultimately came away with nothing, as superb Wallingford defence featuring two held ups over the line kept them at bay, as well as the visitors opting against kicking for goal on a couple of occasions.
Then on the half hour mark, Wallingford made them pay for their profligacy as they ruthlessly converted their next opportunity. After Jack Payne put Cotton away down the left on halfway, the flying winger took play into the Quins twenty-two, and after several further phases, Nathan Chapman picked and went from a ruck 15m out and showed his signature step and pace to power over under the posts. Campbell converting.
Wallingford then edged the remainder of the half, culminating in an excellent team try to round off the half.
An outside break on halfway by Sam Botting following a line-out saw the outside centre combine with centre partner Tom Cerullo to take play up to the Quins twenty-two, before a half break by Oscar I’Anson, on for the injured Chapman, found the supporting Ed Searle, who in turn offloaded to Jayden Grimes who finished under the posts for a converted try.
Half time: Wallingford 19 – 0 Oxford Quins II
The second half opened with a relatively sedate passage of play, with the only action of note being a converted Campbell penalty as the hosts extended their lead to 22 points.
The remainder of the half saw the Wallingford almost solely on the back foot, as some questionable officiating gave Quins platform after platform to attack. Despite barely seeing the ball for nearly 20 minutes, brilliant Wallingford defence, poor Quins handling and some booming Campbell clearance kicks kept the visitors out, before eventually the pressure told as they went over from short range against a tiring Wallingford defence.
With the comeback potentially on, Wallingford then upped their game as they controlled play for the final 10 minutes. Solid set-piece and good game management, along with some decisions starting to go in their favour saw them retain possession for most of the remainder of the game, and they nearly even picked up the try bonus point with the final play of the game.
But the game ended 22-5 to the hosts.
This was a performance that was a long time coming for the hosts and was reminiscent of some of their displays in the second half of last season. Against a well-drilled Quins team, albeit bereft of a few regulars, Wallingford defence was the best it’s been all season, whilst in attack, they were ruthless in taking the chances they created.
They will be disappointed in the penalty count (4:1 in Quins’ favour) and will need to improve in this area in the coming weeks, but to win as comfortably as they did with the penalty count so high is no mean feat.
There were excellent performances across the park, with the front five of Dallimore, Tappin, Grimes, Porter and Searle probably the standouts, and man of the match went to Ed Searle, who had yet another immense all round display on his 100th XV appearance.
