Sat 15 Jan 2022
Wallingford welcomed local rivals Reading Abbey to the Hithercroft on a chilly Friday evening, as they looked to bounce back from the previous week’s loss at Reading.
In selection, Wallingford were without influential captain James Norris and Max Suttner due to injury, but were able to welcome back Nathan Chapman and student Nelly Kinniburgh, whilst 18 year old Tyler Harvey came into the squad on the bench for his seniors debut.
The visitors started the brighter of the two, as they attacked with aggression and tempo, mainly through the forwards as they put the hosts under early pressure. This pressure eventually told, as they worked their way up to the Wallingford line before a hard line crashed through some soft Wallingford defence. Conversion made.
Wallingford slowly went through the gears, and looked dangerous in the outside channels, as Tom Cerullo and Sam Botting created several good chances that weren’t taken.
The home side gradually worked their way into the ascendancy, as Abbey began to fall foul of the referee. After several close carries, debutant Tyler Harvey showed great strength to wrestle his way over the line for a well taken try. Conversion missed.
Abbey bounced back and created some good chances of their own, included one kick through which was judged not to have been legally grounded, but they did extend their lead with two simple penalties, as Wallingford gave away needless penalties in front of the posts.
Before the half was over, Wallingford created one last golden opportunity in the right corner, but good cover defence and a needless pass by Smith saw the opportunity spurned. Fortunately play was brought back for a simple penalty which Charles Campbell converted.
With the temperatures dropping, the second half started at a frantic pace, but it was the home sides indiscipline that gifted Abbey the opportunity to extend their lead, which they duly took with a simple penalty.
That finally seemed to spur Wallingford into action, as their pack really upped their game and began to bully their counterparts around the breakdown, making simple, ugly yards, which eventually culminated in a short range try for Nelly. Conversion missed.
Going into the last quarter, further ill-discipline from the hosts allowed Abbey to build a 6 point lead with another penalty, as Wallingford began to let the game slip away.
But they were not quite done there, and with less than 10 minutes left, a well executed move saw Botting glide past his ineffective opposite number to score out wide, but the tough conversion was crucially missed.
Wallingford pushed for the decisive score, but with time running out, poor decision-making and execution scuppered any Wallingford chances, as Abbey closed the game out for a one point victory.
This was a hard fought match between two evenly matched teams, and although Wallingford outscored Abbey 3 tries to 1, it was Abbey’s superior discipline that ultimately enabled their victory.
Wallingford were frustrated by the loss and will feel they left a number of points out there through poor execution, but there were still plenty of positives, with impressive debut of Harvey probably the highlight.
Man of the Match went to Botting, who was a constant threat in attack and completely outplayed his ‘whooing’ opposite number (he was a tad annoying, as you might have guessed!)
