By Matt Lewis

A fractious affair ensued when High Wycombe welcomed Aylesbury in their Southern Counties North game. Both teams had a man sent off (for two yellow cards) and the game was littered with stoppages for off the ball incidents.

Onto the rugby, it was Aylesbury who started the strongest with their big forwards dominating the game. A high tackle gave the away team good field position, Wycombe defended well holding up the Aylesbury forwards over the line. At the scrum the away team showed their power and went over to score 0-5. The home team soon found themselves 0-12, when sustained pressure took the away team into the twenty-two their forwards carried hard and eventually went over to score. The home team hit back when a strong break from Jamie Vowles was stopped by a high tackle. A good kick set up a line out close to the line and a strong carry from Jake Cockram put Wycombe on the front foot. The ball was fed out to Matt Wardle who made a half break and offloaded to Osian Lewis to score his first try for the first team 5-12. Aylesbury extended their lead when the referee penalised Wycombe for holding on at the restart and they took the three points 5-15. As the half went on Wycombe were enjoying more possession and looked dangerous in the backs. From a lineout on the halfway line Matt Wardle made a break in behind the defence with Ollie Fennel-Wells on his shoulder he timed the pass perfectly and sent Ollie over to score 12-15. Not long after the home team were reduced to 14 men and were on the wrong side of the referee’s whistle. This gave Aylesbury good field position which they used to score from a rolling maul 12-22.

Half Time 12-22

The second half wasn’t for the rugby purest with lots of stoppages and two sending offs. When the rugby did take place, it was Aylesbury who extended their lead when a high up and under was well taken by Liam Dudley but in trying to offload the ball his pass was intercepted, and the Aylesbury player had the pace to score 12-27. This soon became 12-30 when Wycombe were once again penalised, and the three points were taken. With ten minutes to go the home team looked like they would come away with nothing from the game but showed great resilience to score two late tries. The first came from Harry Tanner who scored his trademark intercept try, with Aylesbury close to the try line Harry flew out of the line intercepted the ball and showed good pace to sprint the length of the pitch to score 17-30. Minutes later with Wycombe keeping the ball alive Jake Banton bust through a tackle and broke into the opposition half he offloaded to Alex Barnard who went over to score on his full debut 24-30. With two minutes left the home team couldn’t create anymore opportunities and were content to come away with two points.

Full Time 24-30

Man of the Match

Alex Barnard

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