Wetherby travelled to Dinnington on Saturday for their first game of 2023 with a fully loaded squad. A last minute change saw Rob Adair return for the 15,000th time to replace the ill Tom Goodall. For those travelling to Dinnington in the future, it’s worth noting that there is a crossroads just before you get to the ground that can sneak up on you.

Despite opening the curtains to a deluge on Saturday morning, by the time Wetherby had made their journey down to Dinnington the sun was shining. Wetherby kicked off the game playing up the hill and into the wind and worked their way up the field well in the opening stages to find themselves with a penalty in front of the posts. With the scrum called for it took Wetherby five resets (and Bradley Mason quizzing the referee on whether he liked the film frozen) before the visitors finally scored from a pushover try, with George Gilbert dotting down. 0-7.

Wetherby we’re soon back on the attack as their hosts struggled to string phases together and found joy attacking down the right hand side. Harry Kaye linked up with Jonny Day, and his inside ball to Charlie Yates was offloaded to Myles Oates. A nice bit of footwork drew the overlap and the final pass saw Sam Little run in the try in the corner. 0-12.

Wetherby were finding creative ways to exit their quarters and a strong carry from George Gilbert up the middle allowed quick ball to go wide. Some nice hands in the centres from Jonny Day and Myles Oates set Jack Kaye away on a little burst up the left wing. A couple of big forward carries by Jim Greenwood and Elliott Reid close to the line opened space outside, which was exploited by the backs to send Sam Little in for his second try of the day. 0-17.

With ten minutes to go in the half, Wetherby were using their scrum to great effect. Another good scrum wide on the left hand side saw the Wetherby backs put a lovely move together sending Jack Kaye through the middle. Jack fed Jonny Day whose fleetness of foot was enough to outfox Cal the Dragon and a peach of a pass set Sam Little away for his hat-trick. 0-22.

Dinnington reacted by mounting their first set of attacks on the Wetherby line. A serious defensive effort in our 22 was typified by big shots from Louis Cox-Rawnsley, Henry Acland and George Gilbert, but it was a textbook Elliott Reid chop tackle which paved the way for an important James Gibson turnover.

Wetherby played out from deep and for a moment turned into the Fiji sevens team down the left wing. When the ball finally found it’s way into a ruck, the ball was moved out to Charlie Yates who unleashed a 30-yard pass off his left hand right onto a dinner plate for Sam Little to score his fourth of the day and send Wetherby into half time well on top.

Half-time: Dinnington 0-29 Wetherby

The message at half time was to keep our discipline and to try and keep the visitors scoreless. Needless to say within five minutes Wetherby had given four penalties away in a row and conceded a try. To their credit, a change around in the Dinnington backline had seen the hosts play a much more direct game and they looked far more dangerous in hand. A few good phases after a solid scrum under the Wetherby posts saw Dinnington get onto the scoreboard. 7-29.

Wetherby were struggling to find their fluidity of the first half and a lot of that came down to the line-out. In his defence, captain Hoather found himself throwing into the wind with the sun burning a hole in his retinas. That might have been a good defence if he wasn’t equally bad with the wind and sun at his back. Looking for a spot of inspiration from the coaching staff, he turned to Joe Mason for advice. In typical Joe fashion he responded by saying “try throwing it underarm!”

Frustration was building for many in the Wetherby ranks as they struggled to string phases together and the line-out creaked. This type of tension can affect some more than others, and it was the newly engaged Elliott Reid who found the situation toughest. With his partner in crime Blakey unable to provide his weekly Wetherby tears, Reidy took it upon himself to throw a full paddy in the middle of the pitch. Arm waving, leg stomping, the lot.

The introduction of Rob Adair had exactly the impact you might expect. The mummified Adair threw his shoulder in with gusto and caused a knock-on. Another neat move off the back of the resulting scrum saw Myles Oates with a clear run in to the line as Wetherby scored the last points of the game.

Full time: Dinnington 7-36 Wetherby

Next week sees Wetherby host third placed Old Rishworthians, and if results go our way we could see ourselves climb up to third in the table.