Sat 2 Apr 2022
On a mild but dry day at the Hithercroft, Wallingford welcomed Milton Keynes as they looked to continue their good run of form.
In selection, the hosts were without regular props Jack Thurston and Lawson Dallimore, so Tyler Harvey and Carl Tappin joined captain James Norris in the front row, whilst in the backs, JJ Brown and Billy McDermott came in for the injured Alex Brown and Nick Wiltshire.
With the VP crowd slowly emptying out from their lunch, Wallingford made a good start, with their scrum dominating in the opening exchanges, providing several good attacking platforms.
After they had a tried disallowed early on when Smith was deemed to have made a double movement in the act of scoring, Wallingford did break the deadlock. After Campbell kicked a penalty deep into the MK twenty-two, the Wallingford pack drove their way over the line for Norris to dot down. Campbell converted.
With MK coughing up possession a number of times with poor handling, Wallingford continued to dominate play, and soon crossed again. With the ball moved left just outside the MK twenty-two, Billy McDermott cut a fine line to slice through before finding Norris who finished well for his second try.
Milton Keynes gradually found their feet, and through Wallingford’s indiscipline and the MK scrum-halves penchant for quick tap-and-gos, they soon struck back with a try to the right of the posts which was well converted.
Wallingford continued to edge play, and created several half chances, but almost comically at times, managed to spurn them (just ask Charles about his pass that went 15 yards forward!).
They did however get the key score just before half time. The impressive Ollie Corbett made a break down the left before offloading infield as the cover defence came across. With the ball loose, the ball was hacked ahead and James Norris was the grateful recipient as he dropped on the ball for his hat-trick try. Campbell converted.
Half-time: Wallingford 19 – 7 Milton Keynes
The second half saw greater parity at scrum-time, as Milton Keynes continued to run nearly everything, which kept the Wallingford defence honest.
After a period of relative inaction, Wallingford scored the all-important bonus point try. With MK trying to run the ball out of their twenty-two on the left, a loose offloading trying to keep the ball in play found Tyler Harvey who showed a good turn of pace to race in from 20 yarrs. Campbell converted brilliantly from the touchline.
With MK starting to infringe regularly, Wallingford then added a fifth try. With a scrum moving forward at a rate of knots, it was collapsed by MK and, somewhat surprisingly, the referee awarded a penalty try which the hosts happily accepted.
The last twenty minutes of the game were a scrappy affair which saw MK camped in the Wallingford half for large periods. It started with a yellow card for Nathan Chapman for a debatable high tackle a foot off the ground as the histrionics of the MK player that my toddler would have been ashamed of, convinced the referee to reach for his pocket.
With the man advantage, MK eventually found space wide on the right for their second try, but the scoring ended their as excellent Wallingford defence kept the visitors out, despite a very late yellow for Norris, as the game ended 33-12 to the hosts.
This was a strangely subdued match, probably due to the late season mid-table nature of the clash, but Wallingford were deserved winners, despite never really getting out of third gear.
There were solid performances across the park, with 17 year old manchild JJ Brown having another barnstorming game on the right wing, but man of the match went to Ollie Corbett, who was a threat in attack and ubiquitous in defence.
Match photos can be found in the gallery section:
Wallingford RFC - Firsts vs MK - 2nd April 2022 (rfu.club)
