After a week full of newspaper write-ups about the Wetherby express, the next stop on the line was Bramley Pheonix. Despite a bad reputation for dirty play, picking up cards every game and cheap shots off the ball Rob Adair retained his place in the Wetherby side.

The build up to the game was a line-up of identity crises. Mattie Chappell turned up in hoody and backwards cap, looking like TJ Detweiler. Will Cayton borrowed inspector gadget's coat and looked like a second-hand watch salesman. Sean Lally and Tom Bottomley side by side looked like Sully and Mike from Monsters Inc, and Mike McHugh-Hicks had glasses on bringing murmurs of "Greg Wallace", "Harry Hill", and "Heston Blumenthal".

Bramley kicked off and the first five minutes showed that Wetherby had met a side well matched to them physically. Bramley ran strong lines and defended as a pack despite Wetherby having the early upper hand in the set piece. As is often the case, the opposition threw everything at Wetherby for the first ten minutes and fed off Wetherby errors. Bramley forced a penalty in front of the posts and took the lead to the delight of their vocal fans. 3-0.

Wetherby responded brightly and made it difficult for Bramley to clear their lines despite the wind being at their backs. A loose Bramley pass in the midfield led to some neat play by Jack Kaye to set up Myles Oates to score down the left hand side. A missed conversion by the ever pallid Conor Sheridan left the game in the balance. 3-5.

The middle section of the first half was largely dominated by Wetherby as they looked to have gained some control on the game. Replacement Alex Dus was kicking to good areas and big forward carries from loose canon George Gilbert and Elliot Lloyd Kinsey Griffiths opened another opportunity down the left hand side.
Somehow Myleypoo got in for his second try despite his voodoo girlfriend being present. Apparently they've started seeing a witch doctor to try and cure the curse of her presence sapping away his talent. Maybe it's working... 3-12.

With the forwards controlling the ball well and the wildcard Rob Adair managing to play within the rules for once Wetherby worked their way into a good position once more. Steve Hoather and George Gilbert came close before Wetherby were awarded a penalty five metres from the line. A well balanced front row that looked like the evolution of man going from tight-head to loose-head worked hard to push the Bramley pack across their own line and give George Gilbert a gift of a try. 3-19.

With ten minutes to go before half-time Wetherby hit the self-destruct button. The line-out became a mystery with the ball coming out of Steve Hoather's hands at all manner of directions. Unfortunately, none of those directions was straight. This was coupled with missed tackles in the midfield and Bramley battered at the Wetherby line. They crossed the whitewash with the last play of the half with strong running, weak tackling and a good offload.

Half time: Bramley 10-19 Wetherby.

Wetherby came out of the blocks quicker in the second half and despite the line-out failing completely they looked to inject more pace into the game with the wind at their backs. Jack Kaye had been haunted all week by nightmares of being hunted down by fourteen year old boys but was finally able to put those nightmares to bed with as he managed to squeeze his frail body and square head down the left hand side to score. Conor left his kicking boots at the house of one of his tinder conquests and failed to add the extras. 10-24.

Bramley hit back immediately and used an effective tactic of running the first phase into the midfield and getting the Wetherby defence to over commit before playing the second phase down the vacant blindside. Despite a textbook chokeslam from Matt Harrison AKA the big show, Bramley worked one overlap too many and "meatball" bundled over for an unconverted try. 15-24.

If Wetherby could take one positive from the game it would be that the pack looked to be functioning somewhere near its best. The addition of Bradley Mason increased the power of the scrum and raised the heat of the trash talking. A personal highlight was the wagging of his finger at the opposition and reminding them, "One more red for card for you mister and you won't be allowed to play rugby anymore!" - Frightening stuff. When coupled with the usual cries of "GET OFF HIS NECK!" And "REFEREE THAT'S DANGEROUS!" He really puts fear into the hearts of the opposition.

Wetherby's work at scrum time was soon rewarded as an overlap was created on the left hand side. Now for the interactive part; let's see if we learnt anything from last week.
When presented with a simple 2-on-1 does Conor:
A) make the easy pass and put the winger in to score?
B) greedily hold on to the ball and nearly mess up the situation before luckily getting over the line?
Obviously he didn't pass and he fluked another unconverted try! 15-29.

With fifteen minutes left on the clock Bramley had one more lease of life and threw everything at the Wetherby defence. They stood firm for ten minutes but with five minutes remaining the holy grail appeared. The Bramley prop found himself with a clear run in to the line. He pinned his ears back and flew towards the corner to score a great prop try. For a fellow front-rower it was a thing of natural beauty but for Wetherby fans it made for another nervy finish. The conversion missed leaving the score at 20-29 with five minutes to play.

Despite their best efforts Bramley couldn't tighten the score any further and the game fizzled out. Full time: Bramley 20-29 Wetherby.

Despite their disciplinary troubles it must be said that Bramley played a hard game and pushed the physicality to the edge without over stepping. Wetherby have a week off to recover next week, which will be welcomed by some of the sore bodies.

MoM: George Gilbert - if you haven't seen this lad down a pint of ale yet, put it on your to do list!

DoD: Conor Sheridan - imagine if he put as much focus on his passing as he does into tinder and talking in funny voices!