Sat 16 Mar 2024
Wallingford welcomed in-form Windsor to the Hithercroft on a mild March afternoon as Wallingford looked to continue their push for third place.
In selection, Wallingford were without over a dozen 1st XV regulars so they had to shuffle things round, with Tom Bradfield, Jayden Grimes and Josh Morris coming into the pack, and in the backs, technically retired (according to his wife) Ralph Smith made his first start of the season whilst Nathan Chapman switched from back row to centre in the absence of Sam Botting and Murray Bellis.
Wallingford started brightly, winning an early penalty at the breakdown as they put Windsor under some early pressure. The breakdown was a hotly contested area all game, with both teams earning numerous penalties throughout the game.
After an early spell of pressure that saw Chapman go close, Windsor worked their way back into the game as Wallingford frequently fell foul of the referee. Despite several attacking line-outs, Wallingford’s pack dealt with the threat brilliantly with several sacks.
Whilst Wallingford’s line-out was taking a while to click, their scrum was dominant as they repeatedly put the visitors under pressure and earned a couple of scrum penalties.
After weathering the Windsor storm, a Windsor yellow for reacting on the ground signalled the start of a purple spell for Wallingford with their pack to the fore.
After a scoreless opening quarter, Wallingford finally opened the scoring. From an attacking line-out, a powerful drive culminated in Jayden Grimes burrowing over for an unconverted try.
Their purple spell continued and they soon added to their lead. From a dominant 5m scrum, the pack marched their counterparts backwards, and despite James Norris missing the pick up, Jack Payne was on hand to touch the ball down. Charles Campbell converting.
Despite the score, Windsor were still very much still in the game, and came back strongly. After several penalties in the Wallingford twenty-two, James Porter was eventually sent to the bin.
And Windsor soon made the most of the numerical advantage with the last play of the half. From a tap penalty 5m out, the ball was spun out to the wing where their forward crashed over for a well taken try.
Half Time: Wallingford 12 – 5 Windsor
The second half started in confused circumstances, as Windsor said that they had lost two fronts row (one of which never scrummed down), and therefore scrums had to go uncontested. Despite most people’s understanding being that if you’re forced to go uncontested you have to drop a player, the Windsor side line were convinced that this wasn’t the case and spent several minutes coming on to the pitch to protest to the referee.
Regardless, the referee stuck to his guns (which later proved to be the correct decision when neither injuries were concussions) and Windsor had to drop a player.
With uncontested scrums, although Windsor lost a man, it also meant that Wallingford lost an area of dominance, as the game began to open up.
With the Wallingford backline marshalling the Windsor wide game with relative ease, the hosts then went on to score the crucial next try. From an attacking scrum in the Windsor twenty-two, good hands from the backs gave Charles Campbell some space on the left and the full back finished well in the corner.
Campbell, who had an exceptional kicking game, then dusted himself off to convert from the touchline.
With Campbell’s high kicks earning territory on a regular basis, Wallingford soon worked their way back into the Windsor half, where they earned an attacking line-out on the Windsor 5m line. And although Wallingford overthrew the line-out, Tom Bradfield was on hand to claim the ball and barrel his way over the line. Again Campbell converting.
With time running out, Windsor threw caution to the wind and began to attack wide and hammer in defence, and it was from a defensive gamble that their centre brilliantly intercepted a Wallingford backs move to run in from halfway.
The game was still very much up for grabs with 15 minutes to go, but Wallingford then struck two decisive blows to put the game out of sight. First up, Campbell converted a well struck penalty to extend the host’s lead, before a backs move gave Tom Cerullo half a gap in midfield and the pacey centre accelerated away from the Windsor defence for an excellent solo score, which Campbell again converted from the touchline.
Shortly after that Cerullo was sent to the bin and approaching the final five minutes Windsor got one last try to end the scoring. Wallingford saw out the last five minutes as they ended up victors 36-17.
This was Wallingford’s first ever victory against a strong Windsor team that hasn’t lost since October, but they very much deserved the win, despite some of the travelling side line still claiming that the referee was wrong on the uncontested scrum decision and even that the pitch was too small for men’s rugby!
But apart from some of the unnecessary behaviour of the few, this was a good, hard-fought game of rugby between two decent sides. Windsor were a well drilled outfit and will probably rue not converting more of their chances in the first half.
But Wallingford, who were missing a strong XV of their own, were excellent across the park. The pack dominated for large periods, and the backs dealt with the Windsor threat well throughout. The likes of James Porter, Josh Morris, James Norris and Jack Payne were excellent, but Man of the Match went to the enigmatic Charles Campbell, who’s kicking out hand and at goal was a big factor in the home side’s performance.
