Sat 9 Oct 2021
Matches between Abbey and Wallingford are perennially tight affairs. In recent years, Wallingford have enjoyed an edge up-front and tended to prevail through strangling a more expansive Abbey side and taking the points on offer. On a glorious Autumnal day at Rose Hill, Abbey turned the recent narrative on its head and prevailed in an enjoyable and well-contested game, fairly refereed throughout.
Wallingford, having begun brightly, were unfortunate to loose star centre Sam Botting to a nasty cut within the opening 5 minutes. The re-shuffle brought Nathan Chapman into the centres and a re-shuffling of the backrow. The first twenty minutes saw Wallingford exert pressure on Abbey at the scrum, with Lawson looking increasingly effective at disrupting the opposition feed. An early penalty saw Wallingford edge into a deserved lead and the visitors looked likely to add to their score as they built pressure again before an error in the Abbey 22 turned the ball over. With their first real possession of the half Abbey made good ground into the Wallingford 22, forced a scrum, won a penalty at the ensuing ruck and kicked the points to draw level, somewhat against the run of play.
As the half wore on Wallingford continued to look the better side, without quite managing to break the shackles of a committed Abbey defence. Wallingford/Abbey/Wallingford winger Matt Fearn went close to regaining the lead for the visitors, however was bundled into touch just short of the line by three of his old team-mates. Soon after, in what was becoming a pattern, Wallingford were made to pay for their profligacy as a big carry from Abbey’s Ed House saw the home team make good ground and win a penalty on Wallingford’s 10 meter line, Radford stepped up to slot the kick effortlessly and Abbey had the lead.
Wallingford bounced back straight away with Chapman looking electric as he picked from the back of a ruck, powered and jinked through the fringe defence and broke free into Abbey’s 22. Tom Cerullo, pouring through in support was left with the simple job of dotting down under the posts and, with the kick successful, Wallingford’s two brightest attacking sparks had put the away team into a deserved 10-6 lead.
A three-on-one chance with Campbell to the fore down the left wing was butchered and pressure near the line continually repelled as Abbey lined-up the hard-running Tappin, Jeffries and Chapman and really aimed-up in defence. Having looked like the team in the ascendancy, Wallingford contrived to concede a penalty 45 meters out and it was no surprise that Radford slotted the three points – a testament to how well he kicked all day.
It felt like this was the time for Wallingford to strike and make sure of the win and, looking back at the game, a score here could well have led to a different result. For ten minutes the away side battered away at Abbey’s line with strong carries from the forwards and some great running lines from Cerullo and Chapman, who looked dangerous whenever they combined. Ed Searle was held up over the line and several close range efforts were repelled by excellent defence from abbey with Treacle, Leach, House and Beckly to the fore. The home team’s task was made even harder as Gerry Sutherland was sent to the sin-bin for encroaching the 10 meters after a quickly taken penalty as Wallingford continues to pour on the pressure. However, the half ended with Wallingford leading, but not by as much as their dominance deserved, and with Abbey’s tails up after an excellent, whole-hearted defensive effort.
The second half started badly for Wallingford as replacement prop Jack Thurston, having entered the game to replace James Wilcox-Jones, had to come-off with a pinged calf. Without front-row cover the scrums went uncontested, taking away one of Wallingford’s strengths. With the scrum platform now settled Abbey struck, Beckly picked well from the base and made good ground with his scrum-half before Wallingford were pinged for a ruck infringement and Radford stepped up to do his thing, pushing the home side into the lead.
Having surrendered the lead, Wallingford began to look a little ragged and, as the game broke-open and fatigue began to kick-in, the home side took the ascendancy. Excellent kicking from Radford (including a fantastic 50-22) and elusive counter-attack running from young House at fullback led to an opportunity for Will Bevan, playing out of position in the midfield, to break through and dot down under the posts. The conversion and a further penalty opened up a gap that the away side looked unlikely to close.
The closing 20 minutes saw a lot of effort from Wallingford but play felt a little disjointed. One-out runners were picked off by the Abbey defence before support could arrive and promising possession was kicked away unnecessarily. From the sides it felt that Wallingford needed to tighten-up a little, trust the big men around the ruck and in the narrow channels and build pressure before releasing Chapman, Campbell and Cerullo. However, too often the ball was turned-over unnecessarily through trying to play too wide too soon or through taking the wrong option from second or third phase play.
When Wallingford did click it was through Cerullo’s efforts, slipping through a tackle and bursting down the left, clever interplay with Nelson and a neat one-two saw Tom slide in for his second, taking the score to 22-17. Any hopes of a comeback were dashed through another Radford howitzer (having returned from 10 minutes in the bin for a high tackle) and with Tappin’s withdrawal through injury.
A final foray into the Abbey 22 saw Wallingford win a penalty, through which they could have secured a losing bonus point, however a tap and go and a slightly ill-judged chip and chase allowed the home side to wind down the remaining seconds and kick the ball off to end the game.
Wallingford can be pleased with their effort and the way they stayed in the game, despite losing four players to injury. There were several positives from the game: the line-out and scrum both solid; the forwards carried the ball well; and Chapman and Cerullo looked good in midfield (surely our most hirsute centre partnership of the last 20 years). The period before half-time will frustrate the coaching staff as, with a little more composure and accuracy there were plenty of opportunities to build on the pressure and look to ease into a winning lead. Abbey deserve a lot of credit for sticking in the game during this period and their forwards defended with a real zeal and determination. The home side have lost this fixture in the past through lacking a kicker, this time Radford won the game with an outstanding performance from the tee and through relieving pressure kicking out of hand. As always Abbey were excellent hosts and played the game in a fair and good spirit and we look forward to the return fixture later in the season.
