Wallingford Two’s travelled to second-placed Marlow on a chilly Saturday afternoon, looking for an improved performance on recent weeks. Their chances were bolstered by the return of several players. In the forwards, the front row was made up of three props in Rob Hares, Monk and debutant James, Shakey and Joe Hoare made up the second row, and the pack was completed by Tom Lewis, David Keable and Captain Dan White. In the backs, Matt Dawes returned at Nine after a few weeks off, and there was a new back three combination of Tom Tooth, Matt Bateman and Ralph Smith.

The visitors started well, as they were in the ascendancy in the set-pieces and the backs looked dangerous with ball in hand. Despite this, the home side scored with almost their first attack, as a missed tackle and slow drift defence created an overlap on the left wing and their young backs took their try well.

Shell-shocked from this try out of the blue, Wallingford were then rocked again by an almost identical score. Another missed tackle in the midfield gave the young Marlow backs the opportunity to attack down the left, and despite some desperate cover defence, some excellent support and off-loading saw the home side touch down again on the left wing.

The next 15 minutes were a scrappy affair, as the ridiculously fussy referee persisted in blowing the whistle whenever a Wallingford player opened their mouth, with Matt Dawes being pinged several times for quite rightly pointing out Marlow players infringing around the breakdown. The referee’s pedantical officiating frequently stopped Wallingford attacks in their steps, but they still had their chances, with Rob Hares and James both knocking on over the line. 

Finally, Wallingford got the try that they deserved, after strong ball carrying by the pack took the ball into the Marlow twenty two, where the backs spun the ball left to Tom Tooth who stepped inside before performing a 1960’s style ‘slam-dunk’ to touch the ball down in the left hand corner.

12 – 5 down at half-time, Wallingford knew that all they had to do to turn things around were sort out their defence and keep their mouths shut. Ryan Hodnett was brought on for Paddy in the centres, which was to prove a key decision in the course of the match.

Straight from the kick-off, Tom Woodward fed Hodnett, who did what he does best and sat his opposite man down on his behind, before carrying for several yards. This signified start of a Wallingford domination that was to last nearly the whole of the second half. After several phases of play, the Wallingford pack worked their way into the Marlow twenty-two, and from there the ball was popped to Hodnett five yards out, and with the home defence not fancying the tackle, he dived over for a simple try, which Harvey Bateman converted.

Despite dominating possession, Marlow still looked dangerous at times, but better defence in both backs and forwards kept their powerful Number 8 and their lively backs in check.

The crucial next try was to go to the visitors. With good ball supplied by the forwards just inside the home sides half, full-back Smith cut a line off of Woodward to scythe through the Marlow defence. He was hauled down metres short of the try line, but he was able to off-load to the impressive Joe Hoare who barged over for a deserved try. For some reason, Bateman took a quick drop goal and missed, giving the opposition the chance to run up the pitch and take a quick kick-off with the Wallingford players all out of position. Fortunately Smith chased back to clear things up before the ‘senior’ referee called play back as he was still recovering from the previous play.

The final try of the match went to the influential Matt Dawes, who sniped in from 25 yards for an easy touchdown.

The game finished 24-12 for the visitors, with Marlow not registering a score in the second half. This was a fine comeback by an impressive Two’s side, for which there were several fines performances from Hoare, Smith, James and MoM Dan White who led from the front, especially in the second half. It just shows the potential the Two’s have as a side, and if it weren’t  for injuries and players going awol at times, they really should have been in contention for the league.

1.Hares 2.Monk 3.James 4.Hoare 5.Bailey 6.Keable 7.Lewis 8.White 9.M.Dawes 10.T.Woodward 11.Tooth 12.Paddy (Hodnett) 13.H.Bateman 14.M.Bateman 15.Smith

Tries: Tooth, Hodnett, Hoare, Dawes

Cons: Bateman 2

The weekends other results: