Sat 17 Feb 2018
After victories in their last two outings High Wycombe were looking to continue their good form when they welcomed Reading Abbey to Kingsmead. Into the team came Stephen Philpot, Charlie Edwards, Eddie Roche and James Outten enabling Wycombe to field arguably their strongest team of the season. With the weather set fair it was hoped that both teams would entertain the crowd with some open running rugby.
Wycombe started strongly and a mistake in the Abbey midfield enabled Charlie Edwards to get a boot to the ball unfortunately in trying to gather the ball he knocked on. It wasn’t long until another opportunity presented itself when Abbey were penalised for holding on at a ruck after some good work from Charlie Edwards, flyhalf Matt Wardle kicked to touch and set up a line out just inside the twenty-two. An accurate throw and then maul carried the ball deep close to the line, it was then spun out to the backs where centre Joff Forber broke through the defence to score under the posts, Joe Openshaw made the kick 7-0. Minutes later Wycombe scored again from a scrum on their ten-metre line when Craig Murray picked up from the base and fed Matt Wardle who put in an excellent kick. This bounced awkwardly for the Abbey fullback and winger James Outten managed to get his boot to the ball and kick it towards the line he then showed good hands to gather and score, Joe Openshaw made the kick 14-0 after twelve minutes. Wycombe’s set piece was looking strong and at an Abbey scrum a great drive from the pack pushed them off their own ball, this put the away team on the back foot and Craig Murray picked up and made inroads into the defence he offloaded the ball to Matt Wardle who carried strongly into the defence although he was still ten metres from the line and had two defenders trying to stop him he showed great strength to carry the ball over the line to score, Joe Openshaw made the kick 21-0. Wycombe were looking relatively comfortable playing some excellent rugby but then received a huge blow when Charlie Edwards suffered a nasty looking knee injury, after only recently returning from a previous serious knee injury we wish him all the best and hope he makes a full recovery. When the game restarted it was Abbey who were on the front foot and Wycombe’s cause wasn’t helped when Stephen Philpot was yellow carded for an early tackle. With Wycombe down to fourteen men Abbey took the opportunity to build pressure inside the twenty -two, the home team weren’t helping themselves by being on the wrong side of the referee’s whistle, but they defended resolutely and kept the away team at bay and went into half time 21-0 up.
From the restart a great hanging kick enabled Wycombe to regain possession and a good break from centre Tom Catchpole took play into the twenty-two, the forwards continued to carry the ball up the middle and then spotting an overlap down the right hand side the ball was fed to the backs and a pass from Joff Forber put Harry Tanner away to score in the corner, Joe made the kick 28-0. Wycombe were then given a reprieve when a wayward pass in midfield was scooped up by the Abbey centre who looked like he was going to score when an excellent tackle by Seb Annable forced him to knock on just short of the line. A few minutes later Abbey did open their account when from a scrum a well weighted kick was regathered, although Wycombe managed to scramble back Abbey kept hold of the ball and scored in the corner, kick missed 28-5. This lifted the away team and from a kick through they gathered the ball and made a break through the middle of the pitch, with Wycombe struggling to reorganise there was an overlap on the left-hand side and Abbey went over to score in the corner, with the kick made 28-12. To make matters worse in attempting to stop the try winger James Outten was yellow carded for a high tackle and the game was restarted with a penalty to the away team. Wycombe upped the intensity and hit back after some strong carries from the forwards the ball was fed out to prop Aryton Hooker who powered over to score with the kick from Joe good 35-12. Wycombe were now on top and added another try when second row Stephen Philpot received the ball in open play on the Abbey twenty-two with the defence coming across he put in an audacious dummy wrong footing the defence which enabled him to sprint to the line untouched and score, 40-12. Wycombe’s next try came after a penalty was accurately kicked into the corner, with the lineout secured the forwards set up a maul which was slowly making ground towards the line, seeing a gap in the defence Captain Tom Boardman broke off and carried the ball over the line 45-12. With eight minutes left Wycombe were able to score their eighth try from a lineout deep inside the Abbey twenty-two. Although the lineout wasn’t taken cleanly Aryton tidied up and the forwards carried hard, the ball was then spun out to the backs and some nice hands enabled full back Seb Annable to score, with the kick made 52-12. To be fair to Abbey they never gave up and in the last few minutes pressurised the Wycombe line and should have scored in the last play of the game but unfortunately with the line at his mercy the winger couldn’t hold onto the ball and the game finished 52-12.
