Late penalty try proves decisive

HENLEY 2nds travelled to Counties 1 Tribute Ale Southern North leaders High Wycombe last Saturday looking to bounce back from the disappointment of the double loss to Chinnor. In terrible conditions, they defended bravely for the majority of the game, only to lose it in the last play.

Henley kicked off and had to deal with an onslaught of Wycombe pressure as they didn’t touch the ball in the first 15 minutes with the defensive effort led by Keanu Brouard, Roan Noone and Henry Brothers making tackle after tackle. It was ill disciplined that let them down and this saw Wycombe slot a penalty and then dot down in the corner.

Henley had their first opportunity when a loose kick by Wycombe found Aaron Bello who danced through a couple of tackles before passing the ball to Seb Scott who drove forward. The ball was recycled and the ball was fed out to Zack Taylor who dived into the corner.

Taylor then made a break before feeding Ross Lewis who scored under the posts to give Henley the lead.

Henley’s next score was a clever grubber kick through from Max Titchener, past the onrushing defence and it was Callum Jones that dived on the ball.

The visitors received a yellow card and this allowed Wycombe to fight back, a strong driving line-out saw them score. Henley finished the half strongly with Titchener finding a gap to send a cross-field kick to allow Bello to dot down to give Henley a 26-13 half-time lead.

As the second half kicked off the rain got heavier and it became an attrition affair. As in the first half, Henley were starved of the ball but they defended strongly and kept Wycombe at bay. They did falter and the forward pressure that Wycombe applied told and the scored and hit the conversion to make it
26-20.

Henley had a couple of chances but were not able to build the pressure and their discipline let them down. In the final play Wycombe kicked the ball through and it was a race into the corner. It appeared that Henley had dotted down to secure the drop out, but the referee judged that the Henley player had pulled back the Wycombe player and gave the penalty try.