Sedgley Park 8

Otley 28

NEEDING to get back to winning ways Otley were forced into making changes for the visit to newly promoted Sedgley Park Tigers in suburban Manchester, also the home of the Swinton Lions.

Justin Wring will be out for up to four weeks with a shoulder injury, Nathan Bland's knee needs further rest and Rob Whatmuff pulled out following severe stomach trouble but Paul Williams was able to resume and proved to be a jewel in the line-out where Otley had a field day.

They were also able to call upon Steven Trethewey, the Army prop, who steps back for no one, and coming in at centre Paul Mooney demonstrated why he was signed by Peter Clegg.

Some of his tackles were straight out of the Whatmuff handbook, while the back row was re-arranged to accommodate Glen Wilson, making his first start at No 8, with Ed Thorpe moving to No 6 and James Tiffany crossing to open side.

The home pack was soon in trouble, feeling the full weight of Otley's controlled aggression from the first scrum.

Their superiority appeared to bring out a degree of sympathy for the home side from the referee who found various reasons for penalising Otley for lowering, lifting, boring, etc, coming in at the side of maul or ruck, all of which conspired to deny their attacks of any success, many tries going begging.

When, on three occasions, they drove over the line the ball was deemed to have not been grounded.

They had begun in a now familiar way, conceding an early score. This time they went off-side after receiving the kick-off and gave fly half Blair Feeney a simple penalty which did not appear serious as they went about their softening-up process.

As their attacks floundered for one reason or another the home side began to gain confidence and Otley's defence began to be stretched somewhat but their defensive cover was more than adequate and there were very few scary moments.

It was the 28th minute before Simon Binns equalised but not much longer before they went ahead.

Ian Shuttleworth had made his first run after fielding a defensive kick, selling an outrageous dummy before chipping ahead and a try was on until the bounce denied him a clean pick-up almost on the line.

After Wasaile Sovatabua had forced his way down the touchline the full back timed his run to perfection, winning the race for Sovatabua's kick through.

Binns converted and when Williams claimed another five metre line-out Wilson, doing the job he was brought in for, drove over and it looked as if the game was all over.

Three minutes into the second-half Binns added another penalty and now 18-3 ahead skipper Dave Scully decided all kicks should be directed towards territorial advantage, except for one under the posts on 63 minutes which he asked Binns to convert.

In addition to the penalties awarded, Neil Law put in a number of prodigious efforts and pay day came following one of those when the line-out went Otley's way and after Mooney had cut through and handed on, Ed Thorpe crashed over in the corner, Binns landing a superb conversion.

It looked easy now and five replacements were brought on. James Henry and Ben Fear had to wait a little longer and the home side chose this moment to launch their best attack of the day.

They already had three subs in place and it was one of these, prop Petrus Du Plessis, who went over for Feeney to convert.

Their bonus point was never on offer but a fourth try for Otley looked there for the taking. Its non-appearance as much to do with their own limitations as to the defensive qualities of Sedgley Park but an away win nevertheless.

Saturday's trip to Pertemps Bees in Birmingham will provide a much sterner test but Whatmuff is back inthe squad for that one.

Sedgley Park.- Jago; Feeley, Voortman, Hassan (Naylor 69), Welding; Feeney, Wilkinson; Roberts (de Plessis 61), Oxley (Keys 68), Thomas (Collie 61), Fourie, Lund, Senior, Ponton, Skurr (W Stockdale 69).

Otley.- Shuttleworth; Dench (Henry 74), Mooney, Law, Sovatabua (Taylor 68); Binns (Brown 68), Scully; Trethewey, Luffman (Sayers 68), Fullman (Fear 77), Oakes, Williams, Thorpe, Tiffany (Pike 68), Wilson (M Stockdale 68).