Wold Make Hard Work Of Bonus Point Win
But All In Vain
Wisbech 26 – 38 Southwold
Wold opened the scoring on five minutes when Adam Smith crashed over from a forwards gather and drive after having won good lineout ball five metres out, and Josh Wallis added the extra two points from wide on the left.
Less than ten minutes later Wisbech were awarded two needless penalties and went from their twenty two into Wolds via two successive great touch kicks, and they then made a carbon copy of Wold’s try to narrow the score deservedly to 5 – 7 with the conversion missed.
Wold dominated in the scrums, embarrassingly so, but their lineouts were a disaster and for the next twenty minutes or so the game simply floundered and was hard to watch. It then got worse when Adam Smith was yellow carded and Wisbech were awarded a penalty under the posts and they drove over for a great forwards try and took the lead at 12 – 7 having slotted the easy conversion.
Wold held on until half time with a man down and Josh Wallis even slotted a massive penalty kick from nearly on the halfway line to bring the score to 12 – 10 at the break.
Wold started brightly in the second half and a great period of possession ended in a forward drive with the evergreen Des Brett gleefully getting the try after driving over the Wisbech line, and Wallis again added the two points from wide to put Wold back in front at 12 – 17.
Just before the end of the third quarter Wold were awarded a penalty in the Wisbech twenty two and Sammy Harmer took it quickly and fed Callum Anthony who made great ground before offloading to the forwards and eventually Zak Loader went over for the try, and with Wallis again on song it was then 12 – 24 to Wold. It got better when Des Brett caught the Wisbech restart kick and stormed forwards and started a series of passes right up the pitch which ended in a small maul from which Dom Hill broke away and sprinted round under the posts and it was 12 – 312 to Wold with Wallis again adding the easy two points.
Wisbech then reduced the deficit with their forwards scoring a great try right under the Wold posts following a penalty for offside, in front of the kicker, and with the kick good with quarter of an hour to go it was 19 – 31 to Wold.
Six minutes from time Wisbech had a scrum on their twenty two and Wold pushed them back and Dom Hill picked up at eight and charged round the blind side brilliantly offloading to Sammy Harmer who scored in the corner, and once again dead eye Wallis took the two points from the touchline to make the game safe at 19 – 38.
Resilient Wisbech were not finished however and after three consecutive penalties on the Wold line the forwards drove over yet again on the stroke of full time to make the final score 26 – 38 after what generally had been a very mediocre Wold performance.
If Wold had any chance of piping Stowmarket to the automatic promotion spot they had to win and probably get the winning bonus point by scoring four tries and hope Holt did them a favour by tripping up Stowmarket at the same time in some way or other at Holt.
Wold achieved their target but so did Stowmarket, finishing equal on points at the top of London 3 Eastern Counties and despite scoring more points and conceding less than their Suffolk rivals, Wold finished as league runners up on the basis of losing two games to Stowmarket’s one, and now go into a playoff match at home against Millwall RUFC .
Millwall from the Isle of Dogs finished as worthy runners up in London 3 Essex and now those two teams will battle it out for the third promotion place in a one off, all or nothing game on Southwold Common next Saturday, 21st April 2018.
That fixture probably ranks as the biggest game Southwold have ever been involved with as a win would take them higher up in the leagues than they have ever been before so please go along on the day, if you are a rugby fan of any sort, and support your local team against their Essex rivals.
It should be noted however that Wold will have to up their game massively if they are to come out on top, because if they play generally as they did against Wisbech, a win and promotion is extremely unlikely.
MOM Josh Wallis
Arn the Wold !!!
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