Otliensians enjoy comfortable win

OTLIENSIANS enjoyed a fairly comfortable victory against Bramley on Saturday by two tries and two penalties to nil.

The game was preceded by a minute's silence as a show of sympathy for Otliensians club member Roy Appleyard and his wife, Trudy, on the sad loss of their baby son Isacc.

Compared with the side that had started the previous week at Moortown, Lee Stenton and Simon Coates came in for the injured Matt Tenniswood and Ian Chaplin. David Roberts moved to second row to replace the injured Daren Hardie, with Rob Arbuckle coming in at No 8.

The home side started on the attack and forced Bramley imediately to concede a penalty, Dave Smith unfortunately hitting the crossbar from a good distance out.

Oliensians kept up the pressure and were particularly dominant in the tight. After only eight minute, this was well demonstrated when the home forwards, not for the first nor last time, turned over the visitors, winning against the head with a forceful drive.

Swann sped the ball out to Coates who, with a quick break, thus belied his years, beating several defenders and sent Andy Haywood down the left wing.

Haywood still had plenty to do but outstripped the defence to go over in the corner.

Bramley came back at Oliensians and looked dangerous at times particularly when kicking through.

However, some good fielding of the ball by Lee Stenton and David Smith, with a good drop on the ball by Ady Fawell, relieved the pressure.

The Otliensians tackling was also up to the mark by back row Stevens, Tenniswood and Arbuckle and especially in the backs by Swann, Coates and Chris Bawden.

Otliensians in their turn continued to batter at the Bramley defence, the forwards driving hard at close quarters, but the visitors also held firm until the break.

At half-time the score was 5-0 to Otliensians.

Otliensians stepped up the pressure after half-time with two more turn overs in the first five minutes and also some good jumping by Richard Smith and Bret Tenniswood, the later frequently robbing Bramley of their own line-out ball.

Within ten minutes Otliensians' pressure paid off, forcing a penalty for offside in front of the Bramley posts, David Smith making no mistake with the kick.

Bramley, although not looking like scoring themselves, were managing to contain the Otliensians' attacks with some hard tackling.

Otliensians however, broke the deadlock after 20 minutes of the second-half when centre Bawden once again tried to force his way through and almost succeeded with a great run.

In doing so, he drew the defence for Lee Stenton to go over and put Otliensians 13 points ahead.

Richard Paley replaced Stevens at this point but it was merely coincidence that play from now on became very scrappy with neither side being able to penetrate.

Otliensians were having most of the possession and were certainly dominating. They forced two more penalties before the final whistle, David Smith converting the second to put them deservedly 16 points in front with their line still intact at the finish.

There is a growing spirit of optimism in the Otliensians camp and while coach Hugh Gumbs will not let this creep into complacency, the players are beinging to find a quiet confidence with their hard training beginning to pay off. Such training must continue if they are to maintain their momentum.

The club wishes Ian Chaplin a speedy recovering following his operation earlier this week to have a plate inserted to support his eye socket, fractured 12 days ago in the game against Moortown.

l This week Otliensians were due to face cup tied Bradford Salem and have gone to the clearing house for a home fixture, kick-off 2.15pm.

Bramley Phoenix...27 Otliensians 'A'...0

OTLIENSIANS 'A' travelled to Bramley with a side depleted because of the first team call-ups and the absence of several quality players who had played the week before.

Nevertheless, the side dug in and soaked up the early Bramley pressure.

Strong tackling by Jonathan Woods, Chris Myers and Chris Heyward restricted the home side to only three points at the interval.

The conditions of driving rain and heavy pitch never suited a handling match and Otliensians were forced to play a ten man game.

Tony Collins shone in the forwards with some surging runs from the back-row.

After the interval Otliensians introduced two substitutes and for a moment seemed to loose their concentration.

The home side took advantage of this and created an overlap to score in the corner.

This score early in the second half seemed to give the home side a surge of confidence and the opposition fly-half took full advantage of the wind to secure his team valuable yards and keep the visitors on the back foot.

Otliensians continued to tackle bravely but the home side kept them penned in their 22 for the majority of the half and the pressure began to pay as they conceded a silly try.

An up-and-under from the Bramley fly half led to a scramble for the ball.

An Otliensians player was adjugded to have impeded one of the opposition and the referee awarded them a penalty try.

The final score was 27-0, which did not really reflect the effort and commitment of the Otliensians side which was epitomised by Roy Appleyard returning after several weeks absence.