OLD OTLIENSIANS 0 – Wath 67
more pictures here!
‘Ensians match against League leaders Wath
is one they will be happy to put behind them. Their cause was not helped
by several last minute changes, but they buckled down from the start and
managed to keep the visitors at bay for 16 minutes.
With a big mobile pack, Wath dominated the scrums, despite the home front
row of Tony Myers, James Kear and Ben Newall competing valiantly to hang
onto their own ball. This coupled with clean possession from the lineouts
provided a steady supply of quality ball to the powerful Wath back
division and six tries were scored in the space of 26 minutes to give the
visitors a 36 – 0 lead at the break.
To make matters worse, skipper Rob Arbuckle and coach Carlos Hassan had to
come off injured just after the break with Andy Bower and Peter Tempest
coming off the bench. Flanker Sam Gray worked hard in the lineout to give
the home backs some good possession, but the opposition back row caused
major problems for half backs Sam Featherstone and John Ratahi.
Again good defence from the back row of Gray, Bower and Tom Dyson and
centres Dominic Oddy and Lee O’Donnell helped to snuff out Wath attacks
for the first 17 minutes of the second period. Then the one-up tackling
began to fall off under the intense pressure and Wath started breaching
the defence at regular intervals, running in five more tries to lift the
final score to 67 – 0.
This was always going to be a tough encounter and last minute changes and
injuries added to ‘Ensians’ problems. The hosts defended well for periods
at the start of each half, but the overall strength and pace of the
visitors inevitably took its toll.
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