Man-of-the-match Mikey Watts as Wisbech 1st XV win third home game of season

Wisbech secured a dominant 71-0 bonus point rugby win over Ipswich YM at Harecroft Road on Saturday.

With 11 tries in total from Henry Lankfer, Shane Vickers, Jack Malkin, James Napier, Solomon Prestidge, two tries each from James Patrick and Andy Claydon, a hat-trick from man-of-the-match Mikey Watts, and 14 points from the boot of Jack Malkin and Andy Claydon, Wisbech 1st XV won their third home game of the season.

It was Ipswich who made a fast start to the contest with some high intensity rugby, but the Wisbech defence remained resolute and continued to force the visitors back. Though it was the home side on the 10 minute mark who scored the first try with an impressive score.

The Wisbech tight five led by Nico Steenkamp put in a superb counter ruck to win back the ball, captain fantastic Solomon Prestidge manged to free his arms in the tackle to find Henry Lankfer who still had plenty to do for a superb try. Malkin made no mistake with the conversion, putting Wisbech into a 7-0 lead.

Ipswich were by no means out of the game putting Wisbech under pressure and making them defend. It took another 14 minutes before the arm wrestle was settled, Wisbech managed to get hold of the ball, the forwards setup a couple of good phases to put the men in red in a good position before the ball was sprayed out wide James Patrick on the right wing who had too much pace for the cover defence. Once again Malkin coolly slotted the kick over to stretch the lead to 14-0.

Then the men in red scored another well worked try to further increase their lead. James Napier raced down the left side before cleverly offloading to the senior Shane Vickers for the try. Malkin missed the conversion, but after 30 minutes they had a 19-0 lead.

Within three minutes of the restart Wisbech scored another wonderful try. Similar to the first try, captain fantastic Solomon Prestidge made a lovely half break offloading to his fellow back row Skippy Parsons who ran a perfect line to break free and could have probably score himself before unselfishly offloading to Jack Malkin to dot it down for the bonus point try. This time Steenkamp was unsuccessful with the conversion.

The fast-paced game continued and on the brink of half-time James Napier managed to score a well worked try after some quick phases and good interplay between backs and forwards giving them a 29-0 lead at the break.

To no surprise, the action-packed second half continued when within two minutes of the restart the long-serving Shane Vickers made a lovely break, the pass finding the loose head prop Mikey Watts who casually sidestepped the last defender to score the first of his three tries, Steenkamp converted, giving them a 36-0 lead.

Wisbech started to break free with some free-flowing rugby as the tries kept coming for one of their biggest victories for some time, young 17 year old Zac Lakey off the bench on his home debut putting in a confident display. Jake Jackson in the second row deserves a mention for his tireless work for the full 80 minutes.

With a number of contenders the Wisbech Round Table man-of-the match was awarded to Mikey Watts for an impressive display in the scrum and tireless work at the breakdowns.

Wisbech are desperate to turn their home form into away results and travel to Peterborough on Saturday, 2pm, for a friendly in the absence of a league fixture.

Speaking after the match, Wisbech head coach Nico Steenkamp said: "We spoke to the boys before the match about playing and sticking to our game shape which works well for us, dictating the tempo and maintaining our concentration for the full eighty minutes

"We were a bit under pressure to put right the disappointment from last weekend and the nerves showed in the first 20 minutes, but look, all the boys manned up and we scored some excellent tries in the first half, second half we just spoke about winning our collisions and keeping our concentration for the full 80 minutes and the boys came out and did that

"Next week away to Peterborough is important for the squad to use the friendly and build on the momentum and take their home form and confidence on the road. It is also a fantastic opportunity to welcome back some players from long turn injury ahead of our next competitive league fixtures.”