Wetherby pick up first win of league season

Castleford kicked an early penalty to go 3 up but Wetherby were soon on the scoreboard with fullback Gareth Plant going over in the corner after a slick backline move and a couple of powerful fends on the Cas wide backs. A second try followed soon after with winger Rhys Lacey blasting through a few tackles to score.

Wetherby then switched off a bit and started trying to play too much rugby deep in their own half leading to a turnover. Cas were stopped on the line a couple of times but they finally forced their way over with their Centre breaking through a couple of tackles to score by the posts.

Wetherby were back on the attack quickly and won an attacking scrum 5 yards from the Cas tryline. A powerful scrum was surely leading to a pushover try when the Cas scrumhalf illegally stuck a boot in to kick the ball away. The scrumhalf was very lucky not get a Yellow card but had the first of many whinges to the referee anyway.

Wetherby opted for another scrum from the penalty and this time moved the ball wide. The Cas winger ran in and deliberately knocked the ball down to prevent a try. This earned him a Yellow card, cue more verbals. At the third time of asking the ball was moved down the Wetherby backline for Dave Adair to score.

At this point I remembered I had agreed to write a match report but have forgotten who scored next. I do recall that the Cas side were getting increasingly frustrated and were dishing out plenty of “industrial” language after every refereeing decision. This doesn’t bother the Crusaders though with Captain Frank Pitchford knowing all the swear words and using them frequently to keep the lads motivated. Referee, Mr Stocker, then sent the Cas captain to the sin bin after he questioned both his integrity and parentage in the build up to the forgotten try.

At half time the message was to keep cool heads and keep playing rugby and the tries would come. In true Crusaders style we did the opposite of this and let the same Cas centre repeat his try of the first half although this time he bumped off a about four tacklers. So with 14 men Cas had started a comeback of sorts.

This was fairly short lived and the Wetherby backs and forwards were combining well to work downfield. This lead to a couple of close range scores from young scrum half Nick Oates with a trademark quarterback sneak and prop Pete Franks. Mr Franks was particularly delighted and his broad grin was a sight never to be forgotten.

Cas then had their 3rd and final man sin binned with a late tackle on Dave Adair following a kick through. Next to score was Matt Hawkins following up a clever kick through from Dave Adair who copped for another late shot for his troubles.

The yellow card was soon out again but this time Wetherby powerhouse Kamil Najda was the one to get a rest following a late tackle.

Cas were still plugging away and scored a decent try with their winger showing some decent gas and winning a long chase to gather the ball and touch down under the posts.

In the last five minutes Weth scored two further tries through David Adair and Kamil Najda who scored with the last play to make up for his yellow card.

Gareth Plant slotted over 5 conversions and was voted man of the match for a great all round performance with powerful running, solid defence and some excellent kicking. Not bad considering he limped off last week with a knee the size of a watermelon.

Dave Adair is rumoured to have scored the missing try so he may have scored a hat trick but he didn’t buy a jug so he isn’t having it.
Overall this was a much improved performance with the set piece very solid and the backline looking dangerous in attack.