Sat 5 Feb 2022
On a blustery day, Wallingford travelled to Milton Keynes who sat two places above them in the table. Originally a rest weekend, Wallingford were without their 2, 8, 9, 10, 13 and 15 from the previous week, but were able to welcome back captain James Norris, Jack Payne, Josh Morris and Dan Sadler, whilst JJ Brown made his first at 12, and fellow colt Silas Allum made his debut on bench.
Wallingford started the stronger of the two teams with strong carries from the forwards which led to captain James Norris diving over from 53cm out. Wallingford continued to apply pressure, controlling the game and after a dart down the touch line by Lawson Dallimore, and a couple of pick and goes, James Norris doubled his talley by adding another 60cm dive over the line.
The rest of the first half played out with some solid Wallingford defence as Milton Keynes ball carriers tried to advance down the field. Wallingford went into the break 10-0 up.
Wallingford went into the second half expecting a response from a strong Milton Keynes side and that is what they got. Milton Keynes attacked with runners who all seemed to be the same shape and size but Wallingford defence held strong. Wallingford turned over the ball and after some good hands from the back line, Angus Nelson ran in from 30m out to score his first 1st XV
The next score came from an unlikely source. With Milton keynes 10m out fron their own line, they looked to spread the ball but Will Fox applied pressure and intercepted a pass and trundled in to score. Tom Cerullo converted making the score 22-5
This ignited a response from Milton Keynes who, after several ofloads out of tackles scored in the corner, hitting the outside of the post with the conversion.
The final 20 minutes saw Wallingford trying to do too much with the ball and giving away several penalties which led to several defensive sets but the game finished with JJ Brown and several other carrying a Milton Keynes player down the pitch and be awarded a scrum and bring an end to an impressive performance by Wallingford
