Wetherby produced a brilliant display on Saturday against a well drilled Rotherham side who beat league leaders Wensleydale last week.

They showed early on their intention to attack which was aided by some poor tackling and a poor clearance kick. This pressure was relieved when a long pass meant for the Rotherham winger was intercepted 10 yards out by Myles Oates who ran the length of the field to score a try which was converted by James Gibson.

The home side now began to settle and mounted several attacks which narrowly failed. Their only reward for their enterprise was a Gibson penalty.

This was followed by a Rotherham mistake when one of their defenders failed to make the ball dead and Nick Oates pounced to score. Gibson’s conversion hit the post and bounced out. So the Reds went in at half time leading 15 – 3 with their dominant front row of Watts, Young and Pound giving them the platform to control the game.

The second half saw the introduction of Michael Young who announced his arrival with a shuddering tackle on the Rotherham hooker. This sparked off some brilliant work by the Wetherby pack when Paul Jefferson won the ball at a maul and made some hard yards and when stopped found James Gibson in support to take the ball on before releasing Dan Simpson to score under the posts, Gibson then converted. After this early score Rotherham came back strongly and scored from a penalty which also resulted in a yellow card for Gibson due to continued technical offences. Within 2 minutes however a Rotherham player was also yellow carded for back chat.

The game now swung back Wetherby’s way scoring 26 points in the final 19 minutes. One of the highlights of the game came when a penalty rebounded off the Wetherby posts and was collected by Joe Mason, recently returned from injury. He crashed through the first couple of tackles, Mick Youlden took it on and then Andy Gilligan chipped through. The visitors returned the kick to Myles Oates who attacked down the right before chipping over the defence then collecting the ball from an awkward bounce before diving theatrically over the line to score a converted try. Moments later he scored again exchanging passes with winger Ben Dalby. Wetherby’s youth team produced another excellent prospect in Johnny Wheater. The pacy young winger threatened once with a strong run and when given more space he scored a try on his debut beating 3 defenders. The game was wrapped up with a try by James Gibson from a quick tap penalty from 15 meters out.

A thoroughly convincing display by the Grange Park side who have scored 123 points and conceded only 13 in their last 3 games.
They will look to avenge an earlier defeat of 3 points to nil by next weeks opponents Sheffield Oaks away from home.