1XV (M)
Matches
Sat 04 Nov 2017  ·  Yorkshire Division Two
Wetherby RUFC
1XV (M)
Tries: J Day, C Atkinson (2), G PlantConversions: D WardenPenalties: D Warden (2)Yellow Carded: M Chappell, S Wallis
28
21
Thornensians
Wetherby secure bonus point against Thorne

Wetherby secure bonus point against Thorne

Stephen Hoather6 Nov 2017 - 21:12
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“Don’t worry Scotty, I remember my first scrum” – Mattie Chappell

After coming close against the league leaders the week before, Wetherby entered Saturday’s game with Thornensians in good spirits despite some more dreadful pre-game preparation. Jack Kaye’s unhealthy lifestyle choices continued, as he tried to cry off on Saturday morning with a ‘dead leg’, combined with a lack of sleep and a stinking headache.

The confidence was evident straight away, as captain Danny Warden controlled the ball excellently from the kick-off, fixing one of the reds’ usual weak areas. With ball in hand, Harry Kaye confidently moved his forwards about. The pressure on Thorne gave Wetherby a scrum fifteen metres out, and with the livewire Jonny Day breaking from the base of the scrum the Thorne defence was opened up quicker than a bag of cheesey puffs in Sean Lally’s kitchen. 7-0.

After adding a penalty to reward their early pressure, Wetherby found themselves on the front foot again. Whilst the scrum wasn’t running through its opposition like a hot knife through butter as in recent weeks, the platform was solid enough to give the backs good quality ball. Nice interplay by Rob Adair and Myles Oates put the latter free. His pass to Chris Atkinson still gave him work to do but a slick finish in the corner stretched Wetherby’s lead out. 15-0.

Thorne were struggling to ease the pressure thanks in part to Danny Warden’s superb collections from the restarts. Unfortunately the inability of any of our backs to tactically kick was criminally exposed when it was left to front row Steve Hoather to show off his majestic right boot again. Teasing the full-back with a nudge to the corner, the ball trickled away into touch a metre from the line, tightening the grip on the metaphorical throat of Thorne. After a strong maul, Thorne infringed at the ruck and Wetherby went quickly. In a try reminiscent of a 2014 Wetherby team, the visitors were found napping as the ball was whipped across the line for Chris Atkinson to score his second of the game. 20-0.

With ten minutes to go in the first half Wetherby appeared to switch off. The dirty tricks of Thorne were proving to be too much as one of their players had clearly coated the hands of our players with Teflon at the bottom of the ruck. Myles Oates and Gareth Plant both made almighty messes of easy catches before Bradley Mason spilled a routine chance; probably a side-effect of his unorthodox training regime. Rather than bringing his boots, Bradley turned up on Thursday in boat shoes trying to worm out of training again. When coach Andy Gair made him referee, he was delighted as he skipped around blowing his whistle as though we were at Wetherby Pride.

Wetherby’s errors became too frequent, and as if to prove one of my earlier points, Andrew Trotman made a real mess of a clearing kick when under little pressure. The ball spooned into the hands of Thorne’s flanker who slipped through a couple of tackles to reply before half-time.

Half-Time: Wetherby 20-7 Thornensians
Wetherby were content at the break but certainly weren’t happy. With both teams floundering towards the bottom end of the table, a bonus point win was absolutely crucial and Wetherby set about that in the second half. George Gilbert and Jonny Day were flying into contact, while Tom Bottomley and Mattie Chappell were focussing on the dirty work. Wetherby won a scrum and peeled off down the blind-side with Jonny Day feeding the man of the hour Chris Atkinson to finish off and put a smile on his mother’s face, confirming hers to be the most sought after phone number in the LS post-code. 25-7.

Mattie Chappell has many qualities; he’s an excellent wind-block, a fine solicitor in Saturday night court, and an exceptional judge of child-minders. For all of these qualities Mattie has one main problem. His penalty count. With the wind in Thorne’s sails Wetherby were infringing regularly and Mattie appeared to be directly in the referee’s line of fire. His millionth penalty of the match won him a ten minute rest, and Thorne took full advantage of the extra man as they used a powerful tight game to close the gap with a try of their own from their key ball carrier. 25-14.

Once Mattie had returned to the field, the referee then took aim at poor Scottie Wallis. Despite dominating in the scrum in the first half, Scott seemed to get his knickers in a bit of a twist in the second half thanks mainly to some good scrummaging from the Thorne tight-head prop. After three offences in a row, the referee decided that for one of the sides on the pitch that was enough justification for a yellow card. Another ten minutes with 14 men on the pitch and another battle for our own line. Thorne used their tight carriers to good effect but the defence simply wasn’t up to scratch. Thorne crossed for their third of the afternoon and closed the gap to just three points with five minutes to play. 25-21.

Wetherby have been pipped in the final moments three times this year already and the nervous glances between players were obvious. Tom Bottomley and Harry Kaye went into their usual analysis of how bad the Wetherby players were, and Myles Oates predictably talked about ‘bunching’ and ‘fanning out’. Fortunately George Gilbert, Rob Adair and Jonny Day are all natural winners. Crunching into big hit after big hit, they eventually won Wetherby a penalty in the final minute for Danny Warden to slot over and secure the win for the home-side.

Full-Time: Wetherby 28-21 Thornensians

In truth, a terrible game played by two under-performing sides, but a much needed 5 points. Next week Wetherby travel to Old Grovians, who are mixing it with the big boys at the top this year so the reds will have to be on top form.

MoM: Jonny Day – could have gone to one of four players, but in both attack and defence, Jonny had an outstanding game.
DoD: Scottie and Mattie – Yellow cards must be punished.

Match details

Match date

Sat 04 Nov 2017

Kickoff

14:15

Competition

Yorkshire Division Two

League position

11
Wetherby
12
Thornensians
Team overview
Further reading