Wetherby put on the style against a resilient Salem

With sat nav on, constantly re-routing to avoid the Bradford traffic, the first stop was picking up Wattie and our legendary Head of Grounds, Trundle who insisted he was better than Waze or Google Maps at choosing routes to Shay Lane.

On arrival we received the usual warm welcome from the committee and were treated to a three course meal alongside their sponsors lunch. Not such a warm welcome greeted the Wetherby players on the pitch, however, with the match kicking off in usual combative style in this fixture.

With ‘high’ tackles being penalised early and a dubious late tackle from Kaye (H) Salem were on the front foot with plenty of possession. But Wetherby were not going to bullied and the physicality of Blakey and Mason soon saw Wetherby regain possession and make progress in to the Salem half. In true Gilbert style, straight running was the order of the day, but creativity knows no bounds for this player (not only with the new permed hairdo) and a cute pirouette bamboozled the Salem player who spun off the tackle and head butted Goodall in the knee. A lengthy stoppage ensued.

With Adair back in the starting line up the running was strong and the tackles were low. And the incessant pressure in the Salem half forced a penalty that Yates duly despatched. 0-3

Reminiscent of the England win over Argentina, Wetherby had clearly worked on drop goal positioning and when Kaye (H) found himself in acres of space in front of the sticks, of course he couldn’t resist. Unfortunately the ball sliced off wide right like one of Youlden’s drives on the 1st and Salem regained possession. It was to be the only drop kick attempt of the day!

Reverting back to the plan, Wetherby proceeded to show why they are a more than worthy 1st Division team with a very classy try, passing from touch line to touch line and back again, opening up gaping holes in the Salem defence for Gilbert to score.

0-10

But things weren’t to go all Wetherby’s way and whilst they were patting each other on the back Salem decided they were going to have a go and marauded down the wing in numbers to score their first.

7-10

Lineouts were again going to be an Achilles heel for the visitors, winning more of Salem’s than their own, however the scrum was working and Wetherby were starting to show their usual dominance with Kitching seemingly unnerving the Salem front row.

Half time 15:49

The 2nd half kicked off with an almost immediate Yellow for Salem’s 20, a niggling player who had probably squared up to at least half of the Wetherby team in the 20 minutes he’d been on the pitch. In what feels like ‘The Gilbert Show’, George scores Wetherby’s second and Yates converts from the touchline 7-17.

Again Salem weren’t to be steam-rollered and fought back quickly with strong running against some dubious defending. But their progress wasn’t to be thwarted until they approached the tryline where Blakey was adjudged to have caused a heinous infringement of the laws, of which he claimed to be entirely innocent, and was sent to cool down for 10 minutes.

This reduction to 14 men spurred on Wetherby and it was the backs turn to show a bit of flair. Scurr showed the Salem players a bit of class dancing through their defence and putting on the afterburners. Off loading to Adair who, himself, seemed surprised to be anywhere near the ball, smashed a few out of the way down the wing and passed indie to Kaye (H) who flicked a cultured (and rather risky) long pass out to Woodworth, then bringing Kaye (J) in to the attack and finally to Gilbert who cheekily ran it under the posts whilst Salem were debating the merits of the Wetherby skills.

7-24

Again, Salem are a hearty bunch and despite the apparent dominance and elevated skill levels of Wetherby, they bounced back with a workmanlike try.

12-24

From the restart Scurr and Yates combined beautifully down the wing to break in to the Salem half. Oates lurked on the inside and happily received the ball in a lovely flowing move but the Salem defence reorganised quickly and snuffed out the danger.

Another attack from Wetherby and Kaye (H) finds himself in space with only the full back to beat. “Give it Kenzie” shouted the crowd but Kaye wasn’t to be distracted and danced through the Salem defence to score Wetherby’s 4th try.

12-31

With Salem desperate to get back in to the game they pushed forward with strong running from their backs but Goodall, Acland, Greenwood and McLeary were like rocks that the Salem attack couldn’t breach.

In an interesting phase of play, Yates’s clearance kick was charged down, yet in the subsequent melee he appears from the Salem defence again with the ball and passes to Land who finds himself in space with Adair to his right but the break faltered as Adair found himself isolated after his burst of pace.

Lister brought on for Goodall who perhaps still hadn’t recovered from his kneecap being headed earlier in the match. And with Wetherby on the attack and camped in the Salem 22, Kaye (H) applied an unexpected level of rugby acumen and chipped over the defence to collect himself and touch down under the sticks. Yates conversion.

12-38

Salem are a plucky team and bounced back with a try of their own but Wetherby were victorious and head back home next week for a double header vs Old Leodiensians and our Old Boys luncheon.

Final score 38-24