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LEEDS CORINTHIANS 13 pts v OLD OTLIENSIANS 20 pts
Otliensians started the game at a ferocious
pace, swinging the ball from wing to wing and forcing a penalty in the 2nd
minute, this was sweetly struck by Foster, but came back off the upright
with Corinthians clearing the danger. Otliensians continued to press with
dynamic forward surges from Bonner, Smith, Tom Woods, Arbuckle and Markus
Keinhorst, but when Corinthians were awarded an 8th minute penalty, after
their first move in to Otliensians territory they took the lead with a well
struck kick from 48 metres. There then followed the first of an unsavoury
set of stamping incidents by the Corinthians players, none of which were
seen throughout the game by the unsighted referee, and to add to the mix the
dominant Otliensians scrum was repeatadly penalised for pushing the
Corinthians pack off the ball too quickly.
However, Otliensians continued to have the upper hand and with Birch
orchestrating from the base with No 8 Duggan, and Foster and Ratahi
distributing intelligently the pressure began to build through a series of
well constructed attacks, culminating in a rare Otliensians penalty after
they had once again pushed their oppopnents off the ball. The tap was taken
quickly and tranferred efficiently to Arbuckle who touched down in the left
hand corner, Foster adding the extras with a superb kick. It was all
Otliensians in the first half, but somehow the scores didn't materialise,
and it was left to the excellent Corinthians kicker to convert a further
penalty in the 4th minute of stoppage time to leave Otliensians with a 10 -
6 interval lead.
The second half began as the first with concerted pressure from the whole
Otliensians team, Smith made an offensive tackle at the line out, Lyons fed
Keinhorst who steamed through the Corinthians defence, before popping to
Foster who fed the supporting Ratahi for one of the tries of the season in
the right hand corner, again converted by Foster.
As Corinthians began to scrap for every piece of possession the game began
to lose its shape, and Otliensians were dragged in to a toe to toe battle,
eventually leading to a Corinthians score on the blind side of a scrum to
the far right of the posts, after both teams had been reduced to 13 men by
the Hullensians official, the extras were added and the gap closed to 17
-13.
The reduced numbers in the pack seemed to affect Otliensians to the greater
extent, but lead by Hanogue they withstood a series of drives by the
combined Corinthians forwards and backs, before a full complement was
restored and normality resumed.
As time was played down, Jon Woods was released on a 60 metre run, and the
solid Tenniswood at full back handled everything that came his way, before a
final attack by Corinthians was broken up, leading to another counter up
field and a Foster penalty in the 87th minute to bring another 2 valuable
league points back to Chaffers Field.
Otliensians 52 pts v Leeds Corinthians 0 pts
more photos here!
Otliensians kicked off in this Merit Table
game against Corinthians who arrived late on a superb winter afternoon. The
Ensians attacked immediately and from a scrum on the 22 scrum half Peter
Boultby broke and from the ensuing ruck Dan Ridgeway scored from No 8.and
Ben Newall converted.
After 8 miins a good line out ball was taken on by stand off Andy Bower and
out to Richard Cuff on the right wing who beat his man to score near the
posts. At this stage it was clear that simple rugby and good balll transfer
would serve the home side best.The visitors began to find their feet and
drove up to the Ensians 22 but on 16 mins Joe Robinson won a good lineout
ball on the Ensians 10m. The ball spun across the line, Dave Smith burst in
from fullback and Bower in support scored under the posts, Newall
converting. Directly after the ball again found Cuff who scored wide out, Newall converting. On 27 min the ball swept across the field from the right
and left wing Jason Babb scored wide out, Newall converting.
On 30 min a super break from centre Till Lescotti on halfway led to a maul
10 m out and Bower scored under the posts, Newall converting. A slight
fracas saw one of the visitors props walk off resulting in uncontested
scrums. The half ended with the Ensians leading 40 - 0 pts.
The restart saw Ensians drive to the visitors line and Boultby score in the
corner. Corinthians produced some good forward play to take them deep into
the home side territory but home side defended well and from a scrum on
their 22 Smith made a half break, fed Cuff who blasted his way past two men,
out paced the cover to score, Tom Twist converting. Corinthians did not give
up and tried to the end , the referee blowing up a few minutes early.
Another good team performance by Otliensians with the foundation being laid
by good work from the pack.
Otley Vicounts 10 pts v Old Otliensians 3rd XV
15 pts
Andy Carruthers of Carruthers & Thackwray
and "Hippy" from the Manor with the 3rd XV.
Carruthers & Thackwray are sponsors of the 3rd XV shirts.
see more photos here!
OTLEY VISCOUNTS 10 - OLD OTLIENSIANS B 15
For this match against their local rivals,
‘Ensians were again disappointed to learn that from the outset scrums would
be uncontested as Otley could not field a front row. With newcomer Jason
Stebbens in the second row, Otliensians set off at a fast pace and good ball
gave half backs Peter Gilson and Will Haines chance to get their back line
in action early on. However, the home side defended well and
counter-attacked whenever the ball was spilled.
‘Ensians suffered a major setback after five minutes when fly half Haines
had to leave the field with an ankle injury. Skipper Jim McDougall filled
the gap and Darren Hamilton came on in the centre. The visiting forwards
began to make a big impression in the loose with Matt Taylor, Andy Wood and
Jason Stebbens having strong drives. Twice in front of the Otley posts,
‘Ensians chose to run penalties only to see their efforts nullified by
strong tackling. From one such encounter and against the run of play, the
Viscounts fly half latched on to an untidy pass and showed good pace to
score under the posts. The conversion put ‘Ensians seven points behind after
fifteen minutes.
The visitors responded with clean lineout ball from Matt Taylor and good
interpassing between Gilson, Chris Myers, Andy Wood and Richard Hern took
play into the home side’s twenty two. An infringement gave skipper McDougall
chance to put his side on the score sheet with a penalty.
For the remainder of the half play remained fairly even as both sides
continued to spread the ball wide. Good defence prevented a score until a
series of powerful drives from Steve Robinson, Ray Drake and John Offer gave
Jason Stebbens a chance to force his way through two defenders for a good
try near the posts. McDougall’s conversion gave ‘Ensians a 10 – 3 lead at
the break.
At half time, Alan Harker came on for Offer and within minutes slick passing
from Gilson and McDougall put centre Sean Kennedy away on a weaving fifty
yard run to score half way out. The failed conversion gave the visitors an
eight point lead.
The Viscounts responded strongly with their experienced forwards setting up
a series of strong driving mauls. On one occasion, they got over the line,
but the pile of bodies left the referee unsighted and a score was
disallowed. With both sides having a good supply of clean ball, play moved
from end to end and last-ditch tackles from full back Steve Lofthouse and
wingers Dan Garnett and Tom Broadbent were necessary to keep Otley out.
With five minutes remaining, ‘Ensians infringed in front of their posts and
the penalty left Viscounts adrift by 10 points to 15. With one score in it,
Otley threw everything into attack, but with the experienced Peter Gilson
marshalling the Otliensians’ defence, no further points came.
This was a game played in an excellent spirit and, with skipper McDougall
giving a strong lead, ‘Ensians came away with the spoils through determined
defence and good teamwork.
On saturday the 1st XV are scheduled to play Burley at Chaffers Fields in the
2nd round of the Silver Trophy. The seconds are away at York RI and the
3rds are at home to Yarnbury. |
