Sat 12 Nov 2011
Aylesbury 5 Wallingford 5 - 12th November 2011
Wallingford travelled to Buckinghamshire to face Aylesbury on a perfect day for rugby, nursing a few sore heads from the Sportsman’s Dinner the night before. In selection, Angus Brettel came in at full-back, Miguel Ballon on the wing, whilst Fraser Hunt retained his place in the centres alongside captain Pete Holton.
The game started at a frantic pace, with Wallingford harshly conceding a couple of early penalties as the referee tried to assert his presence in the match. After the Aylesbury number 8 missed the first chance of the match with a penalty 30 meters out, Wallingford soon began to gain a hold on the game. With the early edge in the set-piece, and an apparent dominance at the breakdown, Wallingford were soon making good yards into their hosts territory. And it wasn’t long before they opened the scoring. Attacking in the hosts 22, Smith’s grubber forced the Aylesbury winger to take the ball over his line, and the ensuing scrum saw the impressive Wallingford scrum drive their opponents back and over the line, with Ian Jeffreys eventually touching down at the base of the scrum. The conversion was missed from the touchline.
With Aylesbury not really competing at the breakdown, the visitors were securing plenty of turnover ball, and from one of these turnovers, they nearly scored again. The ball went through the back’s hands, with Hunt and Dearlove showing lovely touches to put Brettel in down the left wing, who barrelled over in the corner as the cover defence tried to get across. With the home side optimistically appealing for a foot in touch, the referee, via the touch-judge, supported their claims, and no try was a awarded.
This contentious moment went someway to taking the wind out of the visitors sails, as Aylesbury slowly began to work their way back into the game, as they looked increasingly dangerous in broken play. Their game plan was clear, move the ball wide early on, to take advantage of the wide pitch, and Wallingford were often slow to adapt to this.
The next significant moment of the match was a harsh sin-binning for the home side’s winger, as he hit Miguel hard after Miguel had knocked on a high ball. Though the numerical advantage didn’t last long a Rich Bower was binned for persistently not rolling away, as the ref began to crack down at the breakdown.
The half ended with Wallingford still 5-0 up as they resisted late pressure from the hosts. The second half was a somewhat one-sided affair, as the visitors set-piece domination began to wane, and Aylesbury’s expansive style of rugby on a large pitch began to tire the visitors out. Despite having probably 80% possession, Aylesbury struggled to break down the visitors disciplined defence, with Derek Viljoen making several superb cover tackles when Aylesbury runners did break through.
Eventually Aylesbury did score, after a knock on in midfield, the ball was spun wide to their winger, who beat his opposite number before touching down in the corner for a well-taken try, with the conversion missed from out wide.
With the Wallingford set-piece strangely beginning to struggle, they saw less and less ball, but on the odd occasion they did get the ball, they looked dangerous, and were lucky not to sneak a score towards the end, as an off-load from Monk was debatably adjudged forward to Brettel just yards from the line.
The last chance of the game went to Aylesbury, as the ref pinged Wallingford for being off-side, just outside their twenty-two. But with the last kick of the game, the Aylesbury number 8 continued his wayward form as he sliced the pressure kick, much to the relief of the visitors.
So the match ended five a piece, probably a fair result all things said. Wallingford gave Aylesbury a shock in the early stages, with the forwards to the fore, but the hosts came back strongly, dominating possession. But Wallingford showed great resilience resisting the waves of attack, against a side that will trouble many a side on their home patch.
- Monk 2.Hill 3.Blasko (Welch) 4.Bailey (Jack) 5.Rowberry 6.Norris 7.Bower 8.Jeffreys 9.Viljoen
10.Smith 11.Dearlove 12.Hunt 13.Holton 14.Ballon (Kelly) 15.Brettel
