Sat 8 Jan 2011
Wallingford 8 - 13 Buckingham
Wallingford welcomed Buckingham to the ‘Croft on a surprisingly good day for rugby, considering the recent rainfall, and were keen to seek revenge for the thumping they received in the reverse fixture earlier in the season.
In selection, Angus Brettel returned from his travels to replace the injured Henderson at fly-half, whilst Paul Lewis came into the front row, with Anthony Marris dropping to the bench. Wallingford knew that would have the ascendancy in the pack, but they had to keep an eye on the live wire Buckingham backs that had caused them so much trouble earlier in the season.
After an early onslaught from the visitors following some poor kicking by the home side, Wallingford slowly began to impose themselves on the game, with the forwards pushing their opposite numbers all over the park via several scrums and rolling mauls. After several powerful runs by the forwards, they soon found themselves in the Buckingham twenty-two, where they looked likely to trundle over the line for the first score of the day. But a mixture of valiant Buckingham defence and a number of needless knock-ons, by both forwards and backs, prevented the deserved score. The best chance came after several pick-and drives had sucked in the visitors defence to leave space out-wide, and when the ball was spun out, the final pass went behind Phil Kelly and the opportunity was lost. Even when their captain was-sinned, Wallingford still floundered near the line.
Wallingford should have come away with at least two scores in this period, but instead, an interception gave Buckingham the chance to show their attacking threat, as they counter-attacked at speed, and were it not for a big hit by Pete Holton, could well have scored.
Having weathered the early storm, Buckingham began to see more of the ball, and against the run of play, scored the first try of the game. Firstly Wallingford failed to find touch with a clearance kick, and a poor chase meant the visitors made good yards running it back. Despite a big hit on the fly-half as Buckingham looked for quick ball, Wallingford were penalised at the breakdown, and after a quick tap penalty, and some good off-loading in the tackle, Buckingham eventually went over for a converted try.
Wallingford continued to have the majority of possession due to the forwards, but poor discipline and even poorer handling all too often threw the advantage away. And indeed, Buckingham extended their lead with a well-taken penalty to give them a 10-nil lead, despite having negligible possession.
Wallingford continued to attack for the rest of the half, and despite the unnecessary sin-binning of scrum-half Dawes, were rewarded with a simple penalty right in front which Smith duly converted to reduce the arrears to seven points going into the half-time break.
It was clear that Wallingford needed more structure and direction to their game. For all the superior weight and bulk in the forwards, they had failed to execute a successful scrum or maul when it mattered near the Buckingham line, and the backs lacked any spark when they did get the ball.
The second half followed a similar script to the first, with the home side dominant in the set-piece, but good Buckingham defence and profligate attacking by Wallingford meant that the scores stayed the same, until Buckingham took advantage of an indiscretion at the breakdown to kick a penalty to restore their 10 point advantage.
After Brettel had to leave the field injured, Henry Venners moved from full-back to fly-half, and almost straight away injected some pace and direction to the backs. After several good phases of retained possession, the backs were able to punch holes in the Buckingham defence and eventually Venners was bundled over for a deserved try. The conversion was missed.
Wallingford were now within a converted try of victory, and desperately pushed for the score. With time running out, the ball was spun wide to Smith who grubbered up the line, forcing the scrambled Buckingham defence to take the ball over their line, conceding a five meter scrum to Wallingford.
Having dominated the scrum all game, this was the perfect platform for the home side to rescue the tie. But unfortunately, Wallingford, somewhat summing up their display, were penalised for feeding at the scrum and Buckingham were able to clear for the win.
This was an incredibly frustrating game for Wallingford. They were always going to dominate in the scrum, but it seemed as if they felt that would be enough to earn victory. Buckingham tackled brilliantly throughout, always going low to cut down Wallingford’s big runners, and when they did get their hands on the ball, ran and off-loaded skilfully, and despite their truncated possession, were probably deserved winners.
The referee probably didn’t have his best game, but Wallingford still had the weapons to win this game comfortably, but Buckingham were more determined and committed on the day.
