Excellent 1st half puts Wheatley to the Sword

MK 1st team were at home for the first time in 2020 as they welcomed Wheatley to Stade:EV. MK knew that they would be in for a tough match as both sides played out a 25 all draw in the reverse fixture in October.

MK started strongly, running the ball back from the kick off and looking dangerous and only for a dropped pass would have opened the scoring inside the first minute. Instead they had to wait until the 5th minute to score after a trademark strong run from Michael Fitzgerald who popped the ball off to Stuart Tomkinson who galloped over untouched from 30 meters.
5 minutes later and MK were crossing the line again after quick play from the back 3, Lee Tribe scored.
MK were now in a relentless mood with Tribe scoring his 2nd and captain Stuart Phipps running 60 meters, beating 3 defenders to dot down under the posts.
MK forwards were starting to feel left out and after a penalty kick to the corner, they set up a driving maul and with Michael Fitzgerald diving over the line and with Tribe adding the extras, MK were 27 - 0 up.
More strong running from Gareth Thomas, Stuart Tomkinson, and Fitzgerald again, allowed a break up the right hand side and Adrian Teckoe rolled back the years to stride the final 25 meters to dive over the line. Tribe was successful with the boot again making the score 34 - 0
Wheatley got the journey out of their legs and capitalised on sloppy play and mistakes from MK and sustained pressure saw their prop take a quick free kick and bundle over the line.
With play now finally balanced it was going to take extra concentration for MK to get back on the front foot. It didn't take long for this to happen and with 2 further scores before half time through some brute force through the middle and Chris Cadman dotting down, and the last through exceptional speed from Joe Fitzgerald speeding away and under the posts (he couldn't let his brother have all the fun). Both conversions were made by Lee Tribe.
HT - MK 48 - 5 Wheatley

2nd half and MK switched off allowing Wheatley the majority of pressure in the opening 20 minutes, MK being camped in their 22 for large periods and with the scrums starting to creak Wheatley were excerting a lot of pressure, but a strong defence from MK were repelling everything.
bang on 60 minutes and MK woke up and starting pushing towards the line and with pressure building James Pickles sold an dummy and with the Wheatley defence buying it, he strode over the line and under the posts for Tribe to knock over the extras.
Again MK switched off and allowed Wheatley back into their 22 and this time pressure told and Wheatley got their 2nd try of the match.
A scrappy last 15 minutes saw Wheatley on top in the scrums but MK finish the stronger in open play and with M.Fitzgerald going over for his 2nd and Tribe securing his hat trick, with Erik Grimley being sent to the bin for infringements at the scrum.

MK will take a lot of positives from the performance, scoring 11 tries in any game is something to be proud of. They will know that in next weeks cup semi final against Chipping Norton, they will need to be cutting out the lapses in concentration. All support is welcome for next weeks match, kick off is 2pm

Thank you to Wheatley for the match and we wish you all the best for the remainder of the season.

FT - MK 65 - 10 Wheatley