Crusaders win against Otley Viscounts

Otley travelled short of players so Watty and Chris started for them to make it 15 a side.

The opening stages were fairly even with both sides making a few breaks but unable to finish them off.

It was Otley who took the lead but only after Paul Minns had come very close to scoring on his Crusaders debut. Instead Otley turned the ball over on their line and broke away through their speedy fullback. A couple of phases later they scored in the opposite corner to take a 5-0 lead.

The Crusaders then fought back and this time Minns forced his way over the line to score. Andy Gillighan converting for a 7-5 lead.

Dave Massey was also on for Otley by this point but it was then Otley’s turn to be sporting convincing the referee not to send a Wetherby player off for some sort of tip tackle.

Towards the end of the first half Neil Smitherman made a strong charge down the right and the ball was then quickly shifted to the left wing where Rhys Lacey went past his opposite number to score in the corner. Gillighan converting again to give the Crusaders a 14-5 lead at half time.

The half time message was to keep the pace up and get the ball out wide as some of the older Otley forwards seemed to be struggling to keep up with play.

This strategy worked well in the second half with centres Matt Bartle and Matt Hawkins both making good breaks.

The Crusaders scored 3 second half tries through Hawkins, Pete Franks and new scrum half Jon Greenwood. One more conversion was added. Neil Smitherman also had a clear try ruled out with the referee unsighted. Smitherman was man of the match making plenty of yards with the ball and also putting in some big tackles.

Big thanks to Otley for travelling short of numbers and talking the referee down from the potential red card. Also to the Wetherby guys who played for Otley well done fellas!