Sat 22 Jan 2005
Wallingford 17 - Farnham Royal 15 (22.01.05)
Wallingford were made to struggle all the way for the two points, and in the end just managed to hang on for a 17-15 victory over mid-table Farnham Royal. Despite having a weight advantage in the pack the visitors struggled in the set pieces all afternoon, nevertheless they looked the more likely to open the scoring and it was no surprise when they went ahead on the half hour mark. After bundling the Wallingford winger Nick RISK into touch on the try line the visitors won the resulting 5 metre lineout and after being held up short of the line on a couple of occasions the Farnham Royal hooker finally powered his way over. The conversion from the touchline went narrowly wide. This score seemed to spark Wallingford into life and they had very much the better of the last 10 minutes of the half. However the handling in the back line left a lot to be desired and far too many opportunities were lost through bad handling and poor passing.
Despite a steady stream of possession from the set pieces the home side’s error strewn performance continued at the start of the second half and the visitors increased their lead when their influential scrum half kicked a penalty after Wallingford had infringed at a ruck inside their own 22. Although the home side responded with some sustained pressure on the visitors line they continued to be the orchestrators of their own downfall with far too many mistakes. Then on the hour mark another loose pass was collected by Wallingford full back Henry VENNERS and he was given far too much room by the visitors defence, and he raced in from 30 metres for a try which was converted by skipper Olli HENDERSON.
The next quarter of an hour was all Wallingford and they took the lead for the first time in the afternoon when HENDERSON struck a penalty from inside the visitors 22. Five minutes later the game seemed to be made safe when Henry VENNERS again split the Farnham Royal defence to score. However the visitors winger deliberately attempted to trip the Wallingford full back for which he got a yellow card, and the referee amended the score to a penalty try which HENDERSON converted.
Then in the final minute HENDERSON had his clearance kick charged down by the visitors flanker who then gathered the ball to score which was converted, to cut the lead to only two points. There was just enough time to re-start the match but at the final whistle it was Wallingford who just scraped home.
