Sat 11 Jan 2020
Wallingford 2s travelled to High Wycombe on a pleasant January afternoon for their first fixture of the new decade. In selection, with the 2109 injury crisis coming to an end, and several new faces joining the mix, Wallingford were able to field a match day squad of 22 (inlcuded one drop out), which is unheard of for an away game. With the likes of Tom Hill, Dave Baxter, Alex Brown, Mikey Ryan and Sam Botting all stepping down from the 1s, and debuts for Gareth Syphas and James Colton, Doug was spoilt for choice in selection.
Wallingford immediately made a bright start, and could have easily scored a try from kick off as excellent off-loading through several sets of hands nearly resulted in a wonder try. But the opening 15 minutes were a frustrating one for the viisitors, as they had numerous chances but desperate Wycombe defence denied them an early score. They eventually did cross the white wash, after good hands in the backs found Ed Poulding entering the line, and his usual show and go was enough to crash over the line. Conversion missed.
A Ryan MacDonald penalty increased the lead shortly afterwards, before Wycombe enjoyed a small purple patch, as Wallingford were penalised at the breakdown several times. It culminated in a well taken try in the left hand corner as Wycombe reduced arrears with the conversion.
Wallingford came back well, with Mikey Ryan, on early for Captain Lane Dog, making an instant impact with some bullocking runs. The tries soon started to come, as the backs came more into the game. Firstly Dom McCabe ran a good supporting line off Poulding to score on the left, before MacDonald ran a similar line off McCabe to score a good team try. The bonus point try came through lock-turned-scrum-half Rob Brown who burrowed over from short range.
Half-time : High Wycombe 7 Wallingford 27
With a raft of changes, and a referee bringing the home side back into the game, the second half was a distinctly scrappy affair. Wallingford still played some good rugby, and were strong in defence, with the likes of Hill and Baxter showing their class with some dominant hits, but the referee's whistle ruined any flow to the game.
Despite the huge penalty count, Wallingford managed two more tries to Wycombe's one. The first, after a bodged line-out move, Smith weaved his way through the Wycombe pack before finding Mikey Ryan to crash over for a deserved try, and then Rob Brown found his brother Alex out wide with a speculative pass for the latter to finish well.
There was still time for a Wycombe score from one of many quick tap penalties, and for Mikey Ryan to go to the bin for escalating some handbags, as the game began to break down, with some terrible smack talk from both sides.
The game ended 37-14 to Wallingford.
Wallingford will be happy with a bonus point on the road at a club that not many Wallingford sides have won at, but were left frustrated with how the second half panned out, but much of that was out of their hands.
Man of the Match was shared between Dave Baxter and Mikey Ryan, who both shone throughout, whilst DotD went to Ralph for attempting a quick tap penalty and only succeeding in kicking the ball into his own face. Technically not a knock on, but I'm sure it looked terrible either way.
