By Hillary Carr
October 27 2004

Another typical Saturday in October: miserable with the wind and steady rain running parallel to the A316 from one set of posts to the other. Uxbridge started with the immediate disadvantage of only having 14 players but despite that Uxbridge followed a simple plan: keep it tight and kick long. Any indiscretions committed by the Wanderers were punished by then losing 40 yards. For what seemed an eternity Uxbridge camped inside the Wanderers 22 and it was a tribute to the Quins solid defence that they were kept out without conceding a score or a penalty try. Having broken their assault on our line the Wanderers rallied and were rewarded with a try after 30 minutes. Will Turquet narrowly failed to score on the left wing from a cross-kick that held up in the wind. From an Uxbridge five metre scrum on the right wing, the ball scudded out of the back of the pack and the predatory Luke Senior grounded it before the defence could react.

The Quins pack started to dominate for the remainder of the afternoon: the front five provided a solid foundation for a very quick back row. Nowhere was this more evident than in the set scrum where Wanderers secured half a dozen turnover balls.

The last ten minutes of the half saw Wanderers run in two more tries; both showed off the talents of the back row and the Wanderers’ close support play in general. The first came from a sweeping back move, Chris Kelly coming into the line from full back to work the right wing with Duncan Threadgould, who then drew the cover outside; Senior appeared on the inside and having lost his marker, put No.8 Rhett Grover away for the score. The second try was direct from broken play on the right wing. Graeme Blackmore punched a hole up the middle for skipper Lucien Roberts to recover the ball, slipped it to Senior who saw the gaps in the defence, took on the full back and passed out of the tackle to his co-flanker Asmonti, who grounded under the posts. All three back row members had registered a score for the Wanderers to turn round 19-0 at half time.

Wanderers played with the elements in their favour for the second half. Lloyd Chivandire came on for Kelly at full back while Billy Katiyo joined the back row, Asmonti moving out to the wing for Turquet.

Uxbridge never eased up and the Wanderers had to withstand a series of fierce assaults on the line; however, the defence held firm and the opposition were forced into taking a consolation penalty for their efforts. Aside from that foray the second half was all one-way traffic resulting in the Wanderers scoring eight tries to nil in the second half. The half back pairing of Ean Evans and Ben Wigley provided clean possession allowing the centres Jamie Eaton and Stephen Allen to capitalise on the space given to them, constantly splitting the opposition defence in both first and second phase play and earning hat-tricks for Wigley, Eaton and wing forward Luke Senior. Eaton was named Man of the Match for his contribution of 31 points. Final score 71 – 3

Wanderers Scorers:
Tries: Eaton(3), Senior(3), Wigley(3), Asmonti, Grover. Conversions: Eaton (8)

1 Blackmore 2 Haarhoff 3 James 4 Roberts (Captain) 5 Boyle 6 Asmonti (5 Points) 7 Luke Senior 8 Grover 9 Evans 10 Wigley 11 Turquet 12 Eaton (V-Captain) 13 Allen 14 Threadgould 15 Kelly 16 Katiyo 17 Chivandire