Old Otliensians gain their revenge

OTLIENSIANS............21

OTLIENSIANS gained revenge for their Yorkshire Shield defeat by Bramley in December when they deservedly beat them at The Warrels on Saturday by two tries, a conversion and three penalties to two tries, a conversion and a penalty.

The visitors were forced to make several changes from the side that beat Barnsley the week before. In the forwards Tony Twist returned at prop and David Smith moved from full-back to back row to replace the unavailable Mark Stevens.

In the backs Lee Stenton moved to fill the vacant full-back berth and Matt Ttenniswood came in on the wing.

Otliensians opened the stronger putting pressure on the home side. David Smith in his new role brought off two good tackles in quick succession and Andy Hayward made a good break in the centre scything through most of the Bramley defnce.

He was well backed up and Otliensians almost scored. There were good runs from the back row, in particular Rob Arbuckle and Brett Tenniswood.

The lively opening produced its reward when after seven minutes Dave Roberts, backing up well, went over for a try after some good inter-play between backs and forwards. The conversion unluckily shaved the post.

The forwards now dominated particularly in the tight where they frequently pushed their opponents off the ball. However, Bramley suddenly threatened and were awarded a kickable penalty.

Fortunately for Otliensians the kick failed. A few minutes later indecisive covering back led to Bramley possession at the maul. They sped the ball down the line for the winger to go over.

David Smith was again unlucky with a penalty when his kick once more hit the post.Five minutes later Otliensians were awarded another kickable penalty and the tee was passed to Will Haines who duly converted to put Otliensians into the lead again.

Otliensians looked the stronger of the sides and they turned their dominance into further points just before half-time. Good forward pressure pulled in some of the Bramley defence and the ball was quickly fed out to Ady Fawell who beat the remaining cover with a good break to go over. New found kicker Haines added the conversion to make it 5-15 to Otliensians.

Immediately before the break Andy Rockett had been sin-binned for a tackle deemed a little late. Chris Baldwin was brought on in place of Arbuckle to make up the front row.

Roberts had to go off with a suspected broken nose and Richard 'Messer' Smith replaced him.

It was Bramley who scored first after the break with a penalty surprisingly awearded for killing the ball in the ruck but Haines soon replied with another for the visitors followed up with his fourth successful kick to give his side a decisive 21-8 lead.

Otliensians were now doing all the attacking and were camped for long periods in the Bramley 22 but were unable to penetrate. In fact it was Bramley who scored next. After 25 minutes of the second-half against the run of play they took advantage of a lack of urgency and concentration by Otliensians and broke out of their own 22 and without hardly a finger being laid on him he ran the length of the field toi scire under the posts. The easy conversion was put over.

Bramley were now within a converted try of turning the tables but the score remained at 15-21 to the end.

Otliensians had been dominant for most of the game and looked all round the better side but they nearly threw it away with a lack of urgency and awareness on the odd occasion. The front five of Twist, Rockett, Payne, Richard H Smith and Roberts, along with subs Messer Smith and Baldwin, grafted unceasingly and laid the foundations for the forward dominance.

The back row also played their part with some good tackling and running by Arbuckle and David Smith and some fine line-out work by Brett Tenniswood, who gained a good amount of opposition ball.

The backs for the most part tackled well with Ritson at scrum-half in particular tackling above his weight and Coates and Hayward made some important hits.

This was a good away win which stretched their unbeaten league run to nine games.

l On Saturday they have Moortown as visitors at Chaffers Field. (kick-off 2.15 pm).

Otliensians A.............15

Bramley A.................19

Looking to reverse the 27-0 defeat at Bramley in November, Otliensians A had an unusual look with backrow men skipper Dave Evans and Peter Tempest in the centre, second row Darren Hardie at full-back and wing Lee Coxon at srcum-half.

An untidy and bad tempered start was littered with penalties against Bramley both for technical and foul play offences and eventually one culprit was lucky to find his way only into the 'sin-bin'. The Otliensians' pack worked hard but the experienced three-quarters looked very vulnerable against a very competent Bramley back line.

A good move from the visitors exploited poor defensive alignment but Simon Dykes produced a try saving tackle. Pressure eventually

told and the Bramley backs crossed for an unconverted try.

Quickly into the attack with some clean ball, from Roy Appleyard and Chris Hayward in the line-out, Otliensians spent a period deep in the Bramley half and Jamie Lawson kicked a penalty to reduce the arrears.

The forward play continued to be rugged with Peter Bonner and Dykes working hard to remove fringing Bramley players and extract balls from the mauls. Eventually, from an excellent forward drive, Bonner, well supported by Appleyard crashed over for a try wide-out which Lawson converted to give the Otliensians a 10-5 lead at the break.

After the interval, the injured Dykes was replaced by Chris Myers and eventually Evans re-shuffled the team to put himself back in the forwards with Lawson moving into the centre.

A period of pressure in the Bramley 22 was completely wasted by the Otliensians giving away a penalty. Bramley used the opportunity to regain the initiative and a straight forward three-quarter move saw them out flank the home side defence to score a try which was converted.

Possession from all phases of play dried up for the home side and some really slack mid-field marking saw Bramely notch up another seven points. Just when a heavy defeat seemed imminent, a resurgence of effort from the pack drove Bramley back towards their own line. Bonner gained some good ground from a penalty and a well won ball from the ensuing ruck led to Coxon putting Peter Tempest in for a try. Lawson's conversion attempt from the touchline hit the post.

As the game drew to a conclusion, the home side kept up the pressure but could not quite produce a winning score.

Given that many players were out of position, the A Team did really well to run the experienced Bramley side so close. A bonus result from this game could be the potential of the developing wing-forward Jamie Lawson as a goal kicker.