An outnumbered Wendens Ambo unit, travelling with only 12 players, suffered a big defeat at Cantabridgians on Saturday in the Eastern Counties Greene King Division Three West in a game of reduced numbers, but can take much credit from much of their performance.
For the first half they were outnumbered 13 to 12 and gave away 6 tries, only scoring one, despite having the wind advantage. They also, surprisingly bearing in mind the try count, dominated territory and possession, but the fast and skilful Cantabs backs, allied to their numerical advantage, scored on most of the occasions that they got the ball in open field.
Wendens were still asleep when the first try was scored by Cantabs, directly from the first half kick-off, but the away side soon found some rhythm in their pack, impressively lead by captain Sheldon Thake. Wave upon wave of Wenden pick and drive moves from behind rucks put the home team under a lot of pressure, which to their credit was handled well with a solid defencive wall. This solid possession was based on a very large superiority at scrum time for the Wendens pack.
Despite this Cantabs ran in 5 unanswered breakaway tries before Wendens’ man of the match, number 8 Hadley Wilcox broke from the back of a scrum, before spinning through 2 despairing tackles to touch down near the corner. In a strong swirling wind fly half Jacob Chisenga failed to convert. One more try from Cantabs left the score at 38-5 at half time with Wendens clearly with too much to do. All but one of the Cantabs scores were converted.
In a generous sporting gesture not often seen by other teams in this league Cantabs allowed Wendens to have the extra man in the second half, and as a result the travelling side won the period by 3 tries to 2. By now Wendens superiority at scrum time was embarrassing, and all penalties awarded to them lead to them opting for a set piece. At times Cantabs were pushed back 30 metres (perhaps a penalty could have been awarded a bit earlier) leading to further Wendens pressure and territory.
Possession was total and more driving mauls, pick and drives and crash ball moves were seen by Wendens, battering the Cantabs defence in to submission. Fly half Jacob Chisenga, centres Nick Flood and Rudi Taljaard started to buzz, slicing holes in the home team until an inside pass from Scrum half Tony Walling fooled the defence and Sheldon Thake went crashing over for Wenden’s second try. Two more followed,Hadley Wilcox smashing through to achieve his brace of tries after prop Joe O’Hara had drawn the defence and Jacob Chisenga completed a great day at fly-half by dancing over in the corner. He too could have had a brace but for butter fingers when over the line in the last minute. The final score was 52-20
Increased and more organised training has improved this Wendens team. With more of the same, better fitness and a more stable squad they will compete well in this league.