Sat 1 Oct 2016
High Wycombe and Marlow’s unbeaten start was put to the test when they met at Riverwoods in the Southern Counties North. In what proved to be a close encounter it was Wycombe who struck first when a great offload inside Marlow’s twenty-two from Ollie Fennell-Wells put Winger Rob Evans away who was stopped inches short from the try line, while the Marlow defence was scrambling back Fly half Matt Wardle picked up from the ruck and dived over to score in the corner, Joe Openshaw slotted the conversion to put Wycombe 7-0 up. Although both teams tried to play flowing rugby the game was dominated by the referee’s whistle and after a penalty for not rolling away Openshaw kicked a penalty to take Wycombe out to a 10-0 lead after 20 mins. Marlow hit back and a line out 5 metres from Wycombe’s line saw a number of pick and drives which eventually lead to a Marlow try and conversation to make the score 7- 10. A yellow card to a Marlow player and the resulting penalty gave Wycombe good field position, after a number of phases number 8 Eddie Roach crashed over for a try on his debut to restore Wycombe’s lead to 10 points with Openshaw adding the 2 points. Straight from the restart Wycombe were penalised for holding on and the Marlow full back cut the lead to 7 points to make the score 10-17, and it stayed this way until half time, Marlow 10 –17 Wycombe
The start of the second half brought about a change of conditions, the sun had been replaced by torrential rain which made playing free flowing rugby extremely difficult. Marlow started the second half on the front foot and Wycombe found themselves at the wrong end of the referee’s whistle. From a Wycombe scrum Marlow managed to secure the ball and Fly half Will Fulton evaded a number of tackles to score a try, the conversation was made to make the score 17-17. Then came a pivotal moment in the match when an off the ball incident resulted in a red card for Pete Partis (I am “reliably” informed it was for throwing a punch) and a yellow card for Marlow. With both teams down to 14 players Wycombe full back Andy Easton found some space out wide to touch down to put Wycombe back into the lead with Openshaw making the conversation, Wycombe now led 24-17. Unfortunately, Wycombe could not hold onto their lead for long as Marlow kept hold of the ball well to score a try and with the conversation good levelled the game once again at 24-24. With the rain getting heavier both sides struggled to retain the ball for any length of time, with Marlow back to 15 players Wycombe were being put under increasing pressure but some tough tackling kept Marlow at bay.
From a Wycombe mistake Marlow gained possession and although Wycombe’s scramble defence tackled well Marlow continued to offload the ball and in the end Wycombe ran out of defenders and Marlow scored in the corner to take Marlow into a 29-24 lead. Wycombe rallied and had a chance to score but with a two on one opportunity ten metres form the line the pass didn’t go to hand and Marlow managed to clear, ensuring Marlow secured the victory 29-24. Marlow stay top and Wycombe drop to 5th. Although a defeat for Wycombe there were many positives from the game especially as they were down to 14 men for most of the second half. Next up for Wycombe is a home game against 9th placed Milton Keynes.
Wycombe MOTM – Eddie Roche
Wycombe Team
- Ayrton Hooker
- Dave Ricketts
- Leo Sayer
- Michael Fradgley
- Pete Partis
- Josh Hall
- Ian Burnham ©
- Eddie Roche
- Joe Openshaw
- Matt Wardle
- David Thornton
- Oliver Fennell-Wells
- Tom Catchpole
- Rob Morgan
- Andy Easton
- Nathan Moore
- Jack Taplin
- Will Sterio
Match Report by Matt Lewis
