Warriors 13 v Wisbech 15 – 13/2/16 words Simon Bennett, pics Woody Woodgate

Fourth placed Woodbridge hosted Third placed Wisbech with both sides unbeaten in 2016 this was inevitably going to be a tight match. The eighty-mile journey from Wisbech appeared to be leave the visitors slightly jaded with a succession of handling errors following a scruffy start to the game. Woodbridge defence was holding firm and they were to benefit from a number of penalties for not releasing the ball as Woodbridge sought to steal. Much of the play was taking place in a narrow part of the field centred on the halfway line.  Woodbridge fly-half J-P Hart put on a well weighted cross-field ball which was well fielded by Sam Jackson who accelerated for the line before unselfishly passing to David Price to touchdown out wide. The conversion went begging.  Skippy Parsons was sent to the sin bin for ten minutes late in the half for misuse of the boot but Woodbridge were unable to take advantage of the numerical superiority.  Following some minor handbags Wisbech put a kick about 15m into the Woodbridge half from the resulting line-out a driving maul took play up to 5m from the Woodbridge try line. An astonishing use of a team tackle carried a Wisbech player into touch when he was over the line and merely needed to ground the ball to score. From yet another pick up at the base of the scrum by Jono Cooke the ball was fed to Jacob Bodkin who went over in the corner. 10-0 at Half time.

The second half saw the visitors gain ascendency in the scrummage and they continued to outperform the hosts at the line out. In due course Wisbech’s second row Ben Chapman scored a try which went unconverted. The match continued to be played to a large degree in the centre of the pitch but Wisbech were to score again through James Napier and this was converted by the ever busy No 9 James Malkin. Woodbridge pressed through a good kick to the corner for another not releasing, a knock on by Wisbech at the lineout lead to a scrum from which Wisbech were adjudged offside and Bodkin slotted the three points making the game 13-12. Sam Jackson continued to put in strong runs into the 22 but late in the game he was penalised for a high tackle and sent to the sin-bin from this Wisbech scrumhalf Malkin scored the three points that took them to their 13-15 victory and cemented their advantage in the league.