Sat 4 Sep 2004
The club got their league campaign off a disastrous start as it suffered a surprise defeat to newly promoted Drifters. In a very scrappy affair which was littered with handling errors, the visitors earned their victory by taking their limited opportunities and their aggressive first line defence. The victory was sweet revenge for the heavy defeat we inflicted on our opposition in the National Powergen Cup last season. The first 10 minutes saw Wallingford dominate the proceedings and after a rolling maul second row Dave KEABLE crashed over for the opening score which Olli HENDERSON failed to convert. However the visitors much heavier pack gradually started to cause problems for
the home eight and our cause was not helped by some poor kicking out of hand. Then after a fly hack ahead and some comical defending by Wallingford the Drifters left wing went over in the
corner for a converted try.
This lead was further extended when TAYLOR the Drifters fly half went on a weaving run and broke several tackles to score in the corner. Again it was converted superbly and soon after the visitors extended their lead with a long range penalty effort. Worse was then to follow for Wallingford when flanker Dorian JENKINS suffered a broken leg and had to be taken from the field in an ambulance.
The game was suspended for 40 minutes and the first half finished with Drifters ahead 17-5.
At the start of the second half Wallingford made a couple of personnel changes in the forwards with the introduction of Kris BLASZKO and Ed JENKINS and as result started to take control of the set pieces and after sustained pressure No 8 Peter THORNS crashed over for an unconverted try.
However despite concerted pressure by the home side all the good work was undone by dropped passes and the loss of possession in the contact area. As a result Drifters got back into the game and their skipper and scrum half COTTER kept them going forward with astute kicking into the corners, something which Wallingford had failed to do in the first half. Wallingford got more and more desperate as the game went on and in the end never really looked like getting a levelling score.
What this game has undoubtedly done is blow away any complacency and hopefully make the side realise that pre-season favourites for promotion on paper means absolutely nothing to other sides in this league. The side has a chance to put things right when we entertain Gosford All Blacks next Saturday in the League.
