Beverley RUFC vs Wetherby RUFC

11th March 2023

Wetherby travelled to Beaver Park sitting 2nd in the table on the back of a 13 game unbeaten run and were pleased to see that the home team had laid on 150 well dressed women for entertainment! It was Beverley’s Ladies Day, an annual event that had clearly started much earlier in the day, a veritable Beaver Town!

Despite the poor weather in the previous week all the snow had cleared and other than the pitch looking rather wet, the conditions were good. Wetherby fielded another consistent team with George Gilbert returning from injury in the squad, Henry Acland out after suffering an ankle injury the previous week.

From the kick off Wetherby looked a little lethargic, as seems to be usual from the travelling teams this season and Bev were let in after some uncharacteristically sloppy tackling from Adair and Yates within the first 2 minutes. Conversion missed, 5-0.

This early action seemed to spur the visitors in to action and from the kick off Wetherby recovered possession and set up an ambitious backs move in the Bev half. With Kaye (J) marauding down the wing Weth he had a two on one with Youlden on his shoulder but Kaye characteristically didn’t pass and the home defence remained firm. As has been a consistent theme in these post match reports, the Wetherby scrum has become feared across this league and so it was that Woodworth, Hoather and Mason assumed the position, probably snarled a little (although difficult to see from the clubhouse bar) and put fear into the hearts of their opposing numbers. And that scrum led to a clever blind side move from Youlden (his brother watching on in admiration) setting up Kaye (J) with no one to pass to so sat the final man and dotted over the line. Conversion missed, 5-5.

The following 15 minutes saw Weth making dozens of tackles led by Blakey, Mason and Goodall, with Adair eventually jackling the ball successfully to regain possession. Wetherby went on to dominate for a period but with little real scoring threat, although the backs did look very nice flicking passes left and right.

But things were to turn sour for Weth when Reid decided to block the Bev winger about 3 minutes after the ball had been played and as a result had the chance to sit down for 10 minutes and give himself a good talking to. Were Wetherby about to push the self destruct button…
From the subsequent penalty Bev went 8-5 up. Oates then sustained a shoulder injury, valiantly playing on with one arm for 5 minutes until the ball went dead. Adair clashed heads with a Bev player taking himself to the dugout to get patched up like a poor-man’s Jack Wray. The result of this chaos was a try and conversion from Bev to leave the game at 15-5 at half time.

The 2nd half started positively, well for about 90 seconds, with Weth in a commanding position in the Bev half but an ambitious nudge through from Yates caught the Beverley winger’s leg and fortuitously left him with a clear run 2/3rds of the pitch on goal to score under the posts, 22-5.

Again Weth proved to be their own worst enemy with Bev in possession but the visitors matching every step forward in attack with solid defence, Gilbert decided that he needed to double up on a tackle already completed by Day. To be fair it was just mis-timed, was at an unfortunate angle, his technique wasn’t the best, the height wouldn’t pass the new RFU guidelines (or any for that matter), and he slipped because of the wet ground (Your Honour). In doing so appeared to make dangerous contact with his shoulder that saw an immediate red card. Weth 22-5 down and 1 man down for the remaining 34 minutes.

But we all know what these men are capable of, and perhaps keen to avoid an embarrassment in front of the lovely ladies of Beverley, they fought back valiantly. Cox Rawnsley and Greenwood were industrious in the heart of every breakdown with Goodall showing this week why he has become a regular in the 1st XV. A try saving rip in the Weth 22 relieved the pressure and when Bev again ploughed forward it was Blakey who came out of the melee with the ball.

Weth were attacking with vigour, but Bev regained possession and their clearance kick was sent to the half way line touch. Fortunately for Wetheby, Woodworth had accurately predicted this event some 2 minutes earlier and had remained in the left back position having a chat with the more agile, younger and better looking, Chaffer. But as the ball flew through the air Woodworth barged the younger man out of the way, caught the ball and stumbled in to contact. The crowd suspected Chaffer might have made a few more yards. Not to worry though, Weth didn’t let the chance slip and Kaye (J) scored with the conversion claimed by Yates.
22-12

As the game headed towards the final 10, Weth were dominant and whilst camped in the Bev 22, forced a series of three penalties that led to a yellow card for the Bev player and a penalty try for the Wetherby team. 22-19

And in the final stages of the match Weth found themselves back in a familiar position in the Bev 22 but a lack of patience and to be honest, they were probably all knackered, led to a knock on from Weth and Bev decided to call the match to an end
with a boot to touch.
A second half rousing performance from Wetherby but Beverley were the better team on the day.
Brian Gilbert and his committee’s hospitality to your committee was first class and there’s much of the Beverley set up at Beaver Park that we could learn from, not least a Ladies Day and San Miguel, Guinness and Black Sheep, all for £11!!