Huge Wisbech victory
The Men in Red reclaimed the top of the league position with an emphatic 70-5 bonus point win on the road in a bone crunching physical match over a spirited Cottenham Renegades side who never gave up.
Wisbech 1st XV made the maiden journey to new league incumbents Cottenham Renegades for round six of Counties 2 Eastern Counties league action in search of their sixth straight win.
Due to unavailability Wisbech were forced to make no less than eight changes.
Wisbech took an early 14-0 lead with two quick tries in succession, first from full back Sam Anderson, followed by scrum-half Zac Lakey, both tries converted by fly half and skipper Jack Malkin, who would again rack up a 100% kicking success from the tee.
Renegades hit back five minutes later with an unconverted try of their own to set the score at 5-14, but ultimately succumbed to the oncoming Wisbech storm.
Winger Ethan Garford scored two quick tries with some sensational individual finishing, both converted my Malkin to stretch the score to 28-5 in favour of the visitors.
With some fantastic interplay between backs and forwards, the ball was played back infield, Solomon Prestidge in space outpaced the covering defence to score under the post and Malkin converted.
Renegades had it all to do in the second half, but Wisbech picked up where they left off, scoring two converted tries in 15 minutes through Anderson and Garford to establish a commanding position over the hosts.
A strong Jack Obey converted try signalled a continuous barrage of pressure from the visitors, who were now going through the gears.
The Men in Red would cross the whitewash again, Prestidge scoring his second and Garford, who proved too much for the visitors all day long, scoring his fourth.
This was a very physical match, with the platform for the free flowing rugby set up at the breakdowns, rucks and when hard carrying was needed to get over the gain line to secure front foot ball, here the forwards where superb. None more so then Wisbech’s Round Table Man of the Match Toddy Case, who was simply outstanding.
Wisbech director of rugby Leonard Veenendaal praised his players, saying: “We went into the match after a two week break knowing we needed to shake off any rustiness by coming out the blocks very quickly and enforcing our game plan on the park.
“Renegades did not roll over or give us an inch and there were some big hits from both sides for the full 80 minutes, but the boys worked hard for each other, stuck to and trusted our systems and were very clinical and ruthless.
“A lot of credit needs to go to coach Gerhard Wessels and the work done in training.
“Our handling and speed at the break down was phenomenal.”
Wisbech are at home on Saturday when they welcome Norwich Union to Harecroft road for round seven of Counties 2 Eastern Counties league, kick off 3pm.
