Wetherby Crusaders fielded a very experienced side with 10 subs and had high hopes of gaining a victory against the more youthful Old Mods team who sat second in the league.

Wetherby dominated the early stages of the first half camping in the old Mods 22 but resolute defense from Mods kept them out until from a planned move down the blind side from an attacking scrum evergreen Geoff Brown managed to squeeze in at the corner. It was half an hour into the game when Mods finally gained some possession and territory following a string of technical penalties by Wetherby and with five minutes left in the half Mods managed to breach the Wetherby defence to make it 5-5 at the half time whistle.

The second half continued with Mods gaining territory through a combination of strong running by their impressive outside centre and continued penalties conceded by Wetherby which lead to a Mods penalty five minutes in. This seemed to bring new life to the Wetherby team who regained the early dominance they held at the start of the game to pressurise the Mods defence resulting in a good forwards try for Dave Hughes for Wetherby to regain the lead at 10-8. The game then see sawed with the Wetherby pack dominating the forward play and the Mods centres dominating the back play and the game looked like it could swing either way. Mods scored the next try which they converted for a 15-10 lead.

With the game entering the closing stages it looked like Wetherby had scored the winning try when Huw Davis crossed in the corner to cap of a man of the match performance by the returning young student. With the scores tied Matty finch calmly slotted over the touch line conversion to give Wetherby a narrow 17-15 lead which they held until the last play of the game which saw Mods break from their own half to claim the victory 22-17.

Overall a very good game played in a great spirit by two well matched team and Wetherby should take a lot of positives from such a close game against one of the top sides in their merit division. Next Week sees the Crusaders travel to Leodiensians were another closely fought encounter is expected.