Wakefield 12 Otley 3

THIS was never going to be a pretty game, both teams too close to the league cellar for that, added to which a muddy surface and constant rain made handling a chancy business. Wakefield took their two clear chances in what was inevitably to be a low scoring encounter.

Fearing previous knowledge Wakefield moved former Otley player Ryan Duckett onto the wing to protect him from a likely barrage and his replacement at full-back was Rotherham loan player Link Wilfley. He handled the high ball comfortably but was off course with his goal-kicking, successful only when converting a try under the posts.

This is not to suggest that Otley's kicking was accurate, far from it. It was mostly a case of getting rid of the ball only to see it run back at them where they had to start all over again.

However, there was much more determination about their approach with more aggression in their tackling but the plan to cover for the absent Simon Binns by alternating Ian Shuttleworth and Rob Whatmuff at fly-half, with the latter taking over the defensive role, caused more confusion than advantage so that the backs rarely threat-ened.

Wakefield were given first use of the slope but they soon found themselves pegged back as Otley sought to rid themselves of their shortcomings of recent weeks.

The game soon took on the appearance of a scoreless draw, especially so when Wilfley missed a straight penalty and when Wakefield second row Richard Hughes was sent to the sin-bin for throwing a punch in the 35th minute. This gave the advantage to Otley only for James Tiffany to follow two minutes later for over-enthusiastic use of the boot.

It was debatable that Tiffany should have been back on the field when No 8 Glen Wilson took advantage of his absence at the back of a line-out on the Otley 22 to dummy a short pass.

Finding himself in the clear he ran as hard as he could for the line and although his legs failed him winger Jon Feeley was up in support to be driven over.

The conversion brought about the half-time whistle.

It was much more of the same after the break but Otley never put their kicks in the right place to set up good attacking posi-tions, although both sides were guilty of losing possession at vital moments.

Wakefield took advantage when Dan Clappison knocked on a rolling ball on his 22 to move the ball from the scrum, first to the right and then back down the line where centre Rob Parker powered over.

A Clappison penalty brought about ideas of at least a bonus point but plan B was brought into play.

Chris Kendra came on at scrum-half, Andy Brown moving to fly-half and Shuttleworth taking over at full-back to the exclusion of Clappison, who was to be sorely missed when two further simple penalty chances came up.

The ball was thrown to Brown who merely demonstrated why he has never been asked before.

So the game ground to a finish with both sides being able to compliment each other on commitment and blame the weather for any shortcomings, which might also have accounted for such a poor attendance, or was it the choice of playing on Sunday?

John Finch