Wallingford halt Henley’s title charge

HENLEY 2nds lost ground with Counties 1 Tribute Ale Southern North Division leaders Chinnor after going down to defeat at Wallingford last Saturday.

With a lot of late changes in personnel with injuries and illness Henley were able to give debuts to former colt Zack Goforth and current colt Harry Waldrom.

Wallingford came out of blocks firing and didn’t give Henley a chance to settle or build any momentum. Henley gave a penalty away from the kick-off and Wallingford worked their way up the pitch to score.

Henley bounced back as a strong run from Goforth took play within a few metres of the line and there were a couple of carries from Bobby Wilson and Barney Stentiford before the ruck became too much of a mess and a scrum was called. From the resulting scrum Roan Noone picked the ball from the base and interlinked with Lucas Braithwaite before dotting down under the posts.

Henley were getting success in the set plays but Wallingford were winning the gain line battle. The home side scored twice more before half time to take the score to 17-7.

The second half followed a similar theme. Wallingford dominated the gain line and never gave Henley a chance to get going. Soli Whittaker tried his best but found no space while Tom Longley and Will Leach defended well in the backs.

Charlie Sichel and Stentiford threw their bodies about trying to make something happen. Ill discipline was a downfall for Henley and Wallingford took advantage to score to take them three scores clear.

Henley kept fighting and nearly went the length of the pitch in the final few moments. An overthrow by Wallingford saw the ball moved to Whittaker in space, he took play up halfway where the ball was recycled and Ed Houghton took possession and got his arms free to give an offload to the charging Ethan Konschel who took play into the red zone, but the final pass was just too high for Waldrom to take.

Henley remain in second place with their next match against league leaders Chinnor 3rds on February 28.