Marlow superior
Marlow RFC v Wallingford RFC: Wallingford struggle to break down
Marlow 30, Wallingford 7
Marlow were superior in almost every aspect – but particularly so in defence - as they swept aside Wallingford 30-7 at Riverwoods to begin their Counties 1 Tribute Southern North campaign with an encouraging win.
The game at Riverwoods went ahead on Saturday afternoon following advice from the RFU for sides to come together and play their matches in honour of Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away at Balmoral Castle on Thursday.
Despite not playing many pre-season matches, due to dry, hard pitches this summer, Marlow looked strong and fit as they controlled this encounter from the outset and looked to show their authority in the early exchanges.
They should in truth have won by a greater margin, however, head coach Rory Greenslade-Jones will be more than satisfied with this dominant, bonus-point victory.
Defensively they were excellent, making their visitors scrap and fight simply to get close to their 22.
To illustrate just how difficult Wallingford found it to put points on the board, the one time they managed to breach the Marlow defence - after being repelled on countless occasions close to the line - one of their players was physically sick as the players trudged back to their half.
This was a difficult afternoon for the visitors, and the loss of their scrumhalf to a suspected dislocated shoulder midway through the first half hardly helped their cause. By that stage, Marlow were already in the ascendancy and had built a significant lead.
Having seen much of the ball in the opening 10 minutes, Marlow finally broke through Wallingford's defences in the 10th minute, centre Hugo Jafari brilliantly sidestepping a tackle and working the ball wide on the left for Dean Whiteley to sneak over in the corner. The extras were missed by Mike Abbott, but Marlow held a lead that was never troubled from that moment on.
Wallingford tried to make inroads when they had a lengthy spell of possession through to the 20th minute, but Marlow's defensive line held firm and Wallingford were either forced back, rushed to kick, or forced into a handling error. The hosts should have extended their lead before the half-hour, but promising moves broke down on sloppy handling errors of their own.
However, when they did manage to put some phases together, and get their handling right, they were clinical. In the 33rd minute they pushed their lead out to 12-0 with a con
verted try, lock forward Patrick Toone doing brilliantly to offload the ball in a tackle to Whiteley who powered off again down the left touchline and round, under the posts, for his second try of the game.
Marlow's defensive game had been so on point up to now it was a surprise to see them let their guard down in the 37th minute, and captain Ian Thomson admitted the players were berating themselves at the time for it. Wallingford managed to keep the ball through several phases close to the posts before their number 16 picked up from the back of the ruck, spun around to avoid a barrage of Marlow bodies and dived over to get the visitors on the board. The try was converted to make it 12-7 and had the score remained the same to half-time, the second period might have been a very different story.
Marlow, however, had other ideas and after winning a penalty in the Wallingford half in the 40th minute - and then seeing the visitors pushed back a further 10m for petulant comments - the hosts kicked for the corner. From the line-out, Marlow players hurtled toward the line on two or three occasions before the excellent Josh Richardson barrelled his way over by the post with support at his back from teammates.
Leading 19-7 at the break, Marlow quickly put further distance between themselves and Wallingford with a couple of penalty kicks, the first of which was expertly kicked by Abbott without a tee.
By the hour mark, Marlow were really motoring, and Wallingford looked a beaten outfit. A kick to the far touchline bounced kindly for Jafari who took the ball at pace and weaved and arched his way past tackles to score in the corner. Abbott couldn't convert a tough kick, but Marlow led 30-7 and at that stage you sensed they'd build on their lead. That they didn't owes something to the character of Wallingford not to roll over, and the misfortune of George Flowers who very nearly scored the try of the game. Having run from inside his own half on a breakaway his attempted kick and chase bounced over the back of the try area just as he prepared to fall on the ball.
Wallingford never threw in the towel and battled hard to reduce the arrears as the game became more stretched in the closing stages, but the hosts weren't in the mood to give them any cheap points, and they'll hope to be equally miserly when they travel to play Milton Keynes next weekend, a side who beat them twice last season, putting 50 points on them in away game in March.