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OORUFC 1st XV 36 pts - Northallerton 0 pts
Photos here &
Slideshow here
Otliensians produced one of their best
performances of the season to comprehensively outplay rival promotion
contenders Northallerton, who arrived at Chaffers Field in buoyant
mood following an excellent victory over Bramley the previous week, but
left pointless.
Otliensians started strongly after Northallerton had surprisingly chosen to
play with the strong wind in the first half, which allowed the home side to
play attractive ball in hand rugby for the first 40 minutes, squeezing the
life out of the visitors in the process. Lee O'Donnell continued his rich
vein of form with a trade mark burst, setting up pressure on the
Northallerton line, from the ensuing charge down Markus Keinhorst pounched,
and with Foster adding the conversion the home side were 7-0 up within 5
minutes. Northallerton came back in to the game, forcing the home side to
defend stoutly, but without a noticeable cutting edge their attacks were
reasonably predictable, with the home line holding solid. On 20 minutes
Otliensians worked their way from a 5 metre scrum on their own line, through
a series of forward drives to the half way, and with strong offensive
tackling from Duggan and Hanague, and a set of solid scrums, it was left to
Duggan to again force the defensive error for Hanogue to score and Foster to
provide the extras. With Bonner, Arbuckle and Tom Woods driving at the heart
of the defence, and Lyons putting in his usual yeoman effort the forward
battle was been won, and on 33 minutes this lead to another 50 metre
O'Donnell break, following an outside run by Jon Woods, and clever
inter-passing with Nick Keinhorst leaving the home side a metre short, but
the Northallerton blindside sin binned for killing the ball.
The second half started with excellent use of the elements by Foster and
Birch, and with the line out functioning to perfection a position was built
on the left, for Duggan to take the set move from the shortened line to
crash over after 47 minutes. It was not long before another pulsating
Otliensians attack was carried forward by Arbuckle on a 40 metre blast
through the visitors defence, he was stopped just short to the right of the
posts, quick transference by Birch and Kristian Keinhorst to the left saw
O'Donnell scored a desrved try in the corner, for Foster to again convert
for the 26-0 lead. The Northallerton forwards then began to come more in to
the game, with excellent continuity, but again their lack of penetration in
the backs, and the marshalling of the defence by David Smith at the back
proved to be their Achilles heel. On 67 minutes a rejuvenated Jon Woods
crossed in the right hand corner, after tremendous recycling and offloading
over a number of phases, and it was left to Lyons to cement the victory
after 75 minutes, when a towering up and under was spilled and Ratahi and
Markus Keinhorst combined to send Lyons gleefully in to the left hand
corner.
With Richard Smith and Hill making an immediate impact off the bench, and
the usual solid performance form Grey in the back row, this was a very good
all round performance, which should give great confidence going in to the
Junior Vase 4th round tie away at Harrogate Pythons.
Northallerton 2ndXV 10 pts vs OORUFC 2ndXV
22 pts
OORUFC 3rdXV vs Northallerton 3rdXV
Photos here &
Slideshow here
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