Old Coventrians beat Old Wheats in local derby

The Old Wheat’s went into the local derby with over 30 players unavailable and 6 changes from last week. I couldn’t quite believe the spread sheet when I saw it this week but in true Wheat’s spirit Saul Hillyer once again travelled down from Liverpool and Frank Sackey up from London to make the game. Craig Mosey once again laced up his boots and by the smell of them it had been a while but he put in a big performance.

Old Wheat’s started the game on the back foot with great pressure being exerted by the OC’s team and Wheat’s didn’t get hold of the ball properly until a lead of 19-0 had been established. This period was made easier when Wheat’s winger Simon Rotherwell who went for an interception on his own 5m line but unfortunately spilled the ball and was sent for 10min sinbin, on another day he could have been running under OC’s posts, however, OC’s made the advantage count.

Wheat’s had the upper hand in the scrums and started to look dangerous with the ball in hand and made ground then for the backs to create a good overlap for James Langton to score, making the score 19-5.
After good scrum pressure by the Wheats in the OC’s 22, it enabled the backs to have clean ball for that man James Langton again to run into the line and dummy a feed to Josh White who was supporting him, but crossing the line himself. 22-12

Just as Wheat’s looked to be fighting their way back into the game, the Old Covent’s won a good lineout who fed a good line pushing it forward down the middle of the park, their player managing to break three tackles and go over just before half time to move the OC’s boys further away from us.

HT 29-12

Just after half time the Wheat’s galvanised and scored a quick converted try by fly-half Gaz Windsor, to pull the boys within touching distance of the Old Coventrian’s, leading 29-22.

Wheat’s couldn’t press on and conceded two more tries late on leaving the final score 41-22 in favour to Old Coventrians, who deserved their victory. However, the Wheats saw enough to convince the lads that come the return fixture and the players we have that are returning the score will be a lot closer!

FT 41-22

Coach Matt Cappell had this to say “The score line doesn’t reflect the effort the lads put into the game, I have to mention Oliver Breeden who had a great game at 6 where he must of put in 20 odd tackles on his first team debut having not played rugby in nearly three years, James Langton picking up two more try’s, Joe Boyle playing out of position at 9 but providing a solid back up to vice-captain Ollie Thorpe who was away showing his giant manhood to the world. The most satisfying part of the day by far was the smiles on the lad’s faces after the final whistle, despite the loss. It shows that they are enjoying playing rugby once again and are keen for the next fixture to put things right”