Sat 11 Apr 2026
Shire Hall 24 High Wycombe II 19
The last time these two sides met Shire could not field a full side and matters got worse in the very first play when Dave Fallon was forced off after colliding with Ollie Homan-Green’s knee. Without the University students, Shire’s team had a slightly older feel with the likes of club legends Ritchie Denver and Geoff O’Brien making cameos and Will Jellicoe adding his severe bulk. Shire were keen to make amends for their sub-standard performance against Phoenix and this was certainly the case in the early exchanges. It took only 5 minutes for Shire to open the scoring with a well worked try for Alex Dorliac which he converted himself. It took only 4 more minutes for Shire to increase their lead when a good break and delightful offload by Harry Stubbs put the supporting Gwyn Robins over. No conversion but Shire were playing some very good, structured play. We saw some trademark Will Jellicoe putting supposed tacklers on their backsides and good turnover ball. On the half hour, a simple try was achieved by good recycling and Harry Stubbs scored easily. Ritchie Denver, perhaps feeling his age, was then replaced by Matt Margot and Shire were well in control of the game. Shire had chances that went begging with misplaced offloads and dropped passes. No more scores before half time giving Shire a seemingly comfortable 17-0 lead.
Half Time Score: Shire Hall 17 High Wycombe II 0
Shire continued their good work in the early stages of the second half, but their cause was not helped by the early loss of Geoff O’Brien and Joe Tett to injury. High Wycombe players were also in the wars with two of their front row forced off as well. This meant there were now uncontested scrums which took away Shire’s dominance in the set scrum. There have been some games this season when Shire sit back on their comfortable lead and are punished. This was the case when, 7 minutes into the half, some poor tackling allowed High Wycombe to score their first try and this was quickly followed by another try to put High Wycombe only 5 points behind. With 15 minutes left, Shire were handed a piece of good fortune when firstly Kris Sharma was taken out illegally at a ruck and then a minute later a very high tackle on Manzi Murenzi resulted in two High Wycombe players sitting on the naughty step for 10 minutes. It took only a minute for Shire to take advantage when Alex Dorliac crashed through the defence to score under the posts and then add the conversion himself to give Shire a 12 point lead. Shire were unable to add any more points when they had the numerical advantage. With just 4 minutes left, a piece of quick thinking by the High Wycombe scrum half at the base of the ruck saw him score. The conversion was successful and it was now a one score game. High Wycombe had played well in the second half, but Shire managed to retain the ball and see out the game.
High Wycombe have had a good season and are second in the table. So this was an excellent result that could have been more emphatic if Shire had been more ruthless. We have now beaten every other team in the league at least once apart from Windsor. Our final game is in two weeks against Farnham Royal which effectively is a shoot out to finish 4th.
Final Score: Shire Hall 24 High Wycombe II 19
Tries: Alex Dorliac (2), Gwyn Robins, Harry Stubbs
Conversions: Alex Dorliac (2)
MOTM: Alex Dorliac – an excellent all-round performance.
DOTD: Ritchie Denver – asking to come off after only 10 minutes!
