Cambridge Exiles 0-51 Wisbech
After all the rain in Cambridgeshire this month (more than the whole of the rest of winter) it was hardly a surprise when this game had to be postponed. With Ipswich conceding last week and a free weekend, the Exiles had not played for a month. The rearranged game was played on a Friday night under lights and the Cambridge pitch was amazingly good given the circumstances. However, it was cold and a wet ball - and the lights make the ball hard to follow.
Wisbech came to us as league winners already, having lost just two games - one of those against second placed North Walsham. But in this league, in the right circumstances any team seems to have been competitive. The Exiles had a strong side out, but rusty after that long lay off.
The Exiles started strongly and pressed for the first five minutes without any real breakthrough into the Wisbech 22, then Wisbech started to fight hard to make ground up the pitch. it took them seven minutes to do so against spirited and effective Exiles defence, most notably the tackling of Jacob, Mark and Max when Wisbech broke free and solid hits from Rijk and Jimmy in the centres. Wisbech tried spreading it wide, but Adam and Nathan were just as strong there, Adam, who is only in his second full season of rugby in particular impressing, but Nathan also solid: it is so pleasing to see the progression Nathan has made this year as he has matured and added real solidity to his undoubted pace.
The front row of Stan, Alex and Brennan found the scrums a challenge as, while the technique of the Wisbech front row was not the best, they were huge and strong. Dec and Jules helped stop the scrum from going back too quickly while Jamari, Cam and Joe marauded around winning turnovers and forcing knock ons in close contact.
Nevertheless, after 12 minutes, the Wisbech pressure resulted in a try wide out on the right 0-5.
Wisbech then kicked a penalty deep into the Exiles 22, and from the resulting five metre line out Wisbech tried a line out maul which Cambridge defended well, so Wisbech attacked the line with maul after maul from short range which the Exiles continued to defend. Eventually however, they ran out of numbers and Wisbech crashed over. 0-10
From the kick off again Wisbech worked the very hard yards towards the Cambridge try line, and when they spun it right they scored in the corner. 0-15
Cadge came on in the front row to see what the could do against the enormous Wisbech loose head, making only a small difference in the scrum. But, now came some strong Cambridge pressure. A typically super break from Mark with offloads from Jamari, Rijk and Jimmy looked like a try beckoned but the ball went down. Now Cam’s work in the tackle and ruck defended well and Wisbech were forced to kick. Then Jamari took a ball at full pace from Mark and broke two tackles (and one of the Wisbech players) but desperate defence kept the Exiles out and again the ball was hacked clear. Max made a strong break, and it seemed that the Exiles were bound to score a deserved try, but the rustiness meant that the final pass kept going missing.
Against the run of play for the second quarter, Wisbech were able to break wide left this time and score their bonus point try in the corner. 0-20
The long layoff, really tough defence, together with the evening match, meant cramp started to appear, with Mark being the biggest problem, replaced by Yvan as Jimmy went to fly half. The scrum pressure also told on Alex whose neck gave up the battle and he came off, to be replaced by Elie who moved to tight head and Cadge moved to loose. At last the Exiles scrum looked good: Elie’s relative lack of height meaning that the big Wisbech prop struggled to get a good body position.
Half time arrived with the score at just 0-20, the Exiles having deserved a score but Wisbech looking a very good side and the second half was clearly going to be tough.
Third quarter, same as the first, resulting in two tries to Wisbech, one going wide, one from a well defended line out maul. 0-30 The Exiles work rate was really beginning to tell as one after another players had to go off for cramp and Yvan and Brennan moved from position to position to cover. Yvan played wing, full back, centre and back row while Brennan played prop second row and No 8.
The final quarter started with Cambridge pressure again as Jacob and Mark, now (mostly) recovered from cramp, picked out the hard runners - Jamari, Cam, Dec, Jules made the hard yards, supported by Elie, Cadge, Brennan and Stan while Rijk, Jimmy, Max, Nathan and Adam almost made the breakthrough. Again, final passes didn’t go to hand and to be fair the Wisbech defence was also superb. For ten minutes it looked certain that Cambridge would score, but it just didn’t happen.
Instead, after so much Cambridge pressure, Wisbech broke free and ran the length of the pitch for a converted try. 0-37
It looked like the Exiles heads would go down and Wisbech would now run in a big score but this didn’t happen. Although they scored twice more up to 74 minutes, the Exiles kept them out for the final 6 minutes, with Cesar coming on for his first run out after abdominal surgery. He and Nathan in this period showed that they were the two fastest players on the pitch and the Exiles were attacking again when the final whistle went, the final score being 0-51.
Despite the score, the Exiles management were delighted with the performance of their team, a fantastic display of effort against a very good side, Wisbech would have known they had played in a very hard game. Superb performances all round, a notable mention for Jacob filling in very well indeed at scrum half. Maybe this is his best position? But especially notable were Cam and Jamari who had his best and most impressive game of the season.
So the league season finishes with 6 wins out of 20 (the Renegades home game being a win, though down in the RFU’s records as an AWO…) A County Intermediate Cup Final awaits in a few weeks after another long layoff. Hopefully training numbers will be good and the side won’t be quite so rusty or prone to cramp!
Team
Alex Howell, Stan Meadhurst, Brennan Logan, Julian Mannion, Declan Sully, Cameron Prior, Joe Roberts, Jamari Dowdie Wright, Jacob Weightman, Mark Leckie, Nathan Cowley-Wilson, Rijk Diepevien, Jimmy McNicholl, Adam Griffiths, Max Burton
Replacements: David Cadwalladr, Elie Hammou, Yvan Bollet-Quivogne, Cesar Belloso
