reports 07-08

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Wetherby RUFC
Grange Park
Wetherby
West Yorkshire
LS22 5NB

Coaches

Richard Willis
email: richardtwillis@tiscali.co.uk

Nick Oates
email: nick.oates@btinternet.com

Nigel Hamilton-Evans
email: nhamiltone@aol.com

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Match Reports season 2007-8

click for previous seasons: 2006-7

Wetherby 44 vs Knottingley 0 - Sunday 2nd March 2008

Having dispatched Selby (60-0) and Leeds Corinthians (37-5) the previous two weeks, Wetherby RUFC U16s notched up another comfortable victory on Sunday, this time to the detriment of visitors Knottingley who had little answer to Wetherby's better overall support, running and handling. The opening minutes of the game saw the powerful Knottingley forwards competing fiercely for possession and with some degree of success, particularly around the fringes of the rucks where their powerful runners were allowed to gain valuable yards.

However as the game progressed Wetherby began to step up with more urgency around the fringes to make the tackle on the opposition side of the gain line and consequently created more turnover ball from which their clearly superior three quarters ran freely to threaten the visitors' line on almost every occasion and it was not long before winger Alex Long opened the scoring following swift handling and a simple race to the corner.

Soon after stand off Myles Oates capitalised on a Knottingley error close to their own line, picking up the loose ball and scampering through two would be tacklers to dive under the posts for a simple try.

With the Wetherby forwards increasingly starving them of possession, Knottingley were largely unable to utilise the near gale force wind behind them and spent much of the half under pressure, with flankers Booth and Mason an ever present force for Wetherby at the breakdown and on the counter attack.

The second half not surprisingly saw Wetherby's domination increase, though to their credit the visitors showed huge spirit and battled to the final whistle, despite losing two players to injury in the final quarter of an hour. Resisting the temptation to simply kick the ball with the strong wind, Wetherby varied their game from running out wide to driving rucks and rolling mauls from close range to give an excellent all round display. With the versatile Day looking fully at home in his new position at hooker, the front five are becoming increasingly settled and dominant in the scrum and the powerful Pickard came on at prop for the second half to simply destroy his already battle weary opposite number. Further Wetherby tries came from Bottomley, Day, Oates, Picker, and flanker Will Booth, notching up his first fully deserved score for the team. With the goal kicking duties shared by Oates and Picker to add the extras, the score line reflected another dominant Wetherby performance.

Old Rishworthians 6 vs Wetherby 10 - Sunday 3rd February 2008

Wetherby U16 continued their unbeaten run with a hard worked victory away to Old Rishworthians last Sunday.

With the absence of some key players and on the heaviest of pitches this was never going to be a day for sparkling flowing rugby. The early exchanges saw Rishworthians adapting better to the difficult conditions with their pack playing a tightly controlled pick and drive game, retaining possession and grinding their way into Wetherby territory. For the first quarter of the game the Grange Park men seemed to have little answer with their reshuffled pack seeming taken aback and frustrated at the lack of possession coming their way and they surrendered the lead to a penalty after their failure to control this in front of their own posts was punished by a clearly strict referee. On several more occasions as the game progressed one or two in the Wetherby pack did not learn the lesson and were to cost themselves ground and almost the match by childishly and pointlessly voicing their opinions to the referee.

Perhaps too little quick ball was supplied to the Wetherby backs for them to really settle down and perform but this was generally used to good effect with some astute decisions from fly half Myles Oates varying the play adequately and his centres James Picker and Will Lockwood both running the ball with pace and power and ultimately proving too much of a handful for their opponents to contain as Lockwood ultimately powered through a tackle to touch down out wide.

For the third quarter of the game Wetherby seemed much more in control, the arrival of Dan Hay adding solidity to the second row and Julian Mason having a typically lively hardworking game at openside flanker. Charlie Fox at scrum half had an excellent defensive game, doing a back row job in snuffing out several Rish attacks around the fringes and in attack used his options with variety and consequently picked himself up a deserved short range try for his efforts.

As the game progressed to the final stages, Wetherby on occasions put themselves under pressure by some unnecessary and careless passing and far too lateral running lines rather than simply opting to take the ball back into contact and reset for better quality ball. Under pressure they compounded their troubles by again getting on the wrong side of the referee and had Rish not lost control of the ball over the line following a late surge from them in the dying minutes, the result could so easily have gone the other way. As it was, Wetherby's lapse proved momentary and they recovered their control to maintain the 10 - 6 lead to the final whistle.

All in all a scrappy but largely hard worked and deserved victory.

Wetherby 17 vs Thorne 3 - Sunday 27th January 2008

Wetherby U16's seem to be continuing their return to form in 2008 as the last weeks have brought two good performances notable perhaps mostly for an increasing maturity in play and resolve under pressure. Having possibly made overly hard work the previous week of the narrowest of victories at 7-5 against an ever improving Ripon side, they then turned round their previous encounter with tough adversaries Thorne last Sunday to take victory with three unanswered tries.

From the kick off the resolve to reverse their earlier narrow away defeat was evident with strong drives from captain Tom Bottomley, his second row partner Dan Hay and a generally increased tempo from the whole pack putting Thorne very largely on the back foot as they had little answer to Wetherby's driving mauls and well executed rucking. The return from injury of centre Kieran Fleming and fly half Myles Oates added an extra cutting edge to the three quarters and equally significantly allowed the adaptable Alex Hills to return to his favoured position in the back row where he galvanised the defence around the fringes to snuff out many of Thorne's attempts to drive the ball up with their uncompromisingly aggressive forwards.

Playing with a blustery crosswind slightly in his favour fly half Oates put in some intelligent early kicks to gain territory from where an almost infallible lineout performance between hooker Hamilton Evans throwing and jumpers Booth and Mason supplied plenty of ball for the Wetherby three quarters to perform. Their first try ironically came from the versatile Will Lockwood who whilst filling in at prop to cover unavailable regulars, popped up in support on the wing in the third phase of play to outpace two defenders and simply power through the full back for a fine opening score under the posts.

From there Wetherby began to look more in control of the game, retaining and recycling possession more consistently and perhaps with a little quicker ball to the three quarters and without one or two overlap chances missed they could have been more comfortably in the lead by the interval. As it was they managed just one more try in the first half but this was something of a treat straight from the training ground. A perfect lineout gave the three quarters quality first phase ball and a superbly executed handling gave the overlap for winger Jack Mudd who showed skilful footwork to check the covering full back and then sheer pace to round him and score in the corner.

With Thorne taking a penalty goal into the the interval to keep their hopes alive the second half began in furiously contested form and for a time Wetherby were under severe pressure. There followed a long period of scrappy and, perhaps more so on on the part of the visitors' somewhat ill tempered play which stretched the referee to the limit but in which Wetherby's success in shutting out Thorne and holding their line intact against the sustained pressure was probably the defining part of the game and in which the hosts demonstrated their increasing maturity, resolve and self belief.

With the irrepressible and feisty Jonny Day entering the fray at scrum half Wetherby's style of play was changed and a more forward orientated possession game ensued. Day himself made a couple of telling lightning breaks which in fact caught out his own team as he found himself with little support to whom he could offload and had to fight hard to retain possession. No 8 Dave Wilson also broke powerfully from the base of the scrum and on one occasion was just dragged down by a fine Thorne tackle. The support from the pack then gave ball to runner Lockwood who went on a mazy drifting run before feeding the ball out to the wide three quarters where full back Will Davies joined to again create the overlap for winger Alex Long who dived to take the score in the corner.

To their credit Thorne refused to go quietly and put up a fearsome final 10 minutes, fully testing Wetherby's character, but they perhaps ran out of ideas and too many kicks for territory were well read and comfortably dealt with by full back Davies. With an immense showing late in the game from loose head prop Louis Pickard, now clearly regaining his match fitness also after a lengthy injury layoff, Wetherby closed down the game to take a most entertaining and praiseworthy 17 - 3 victory.

Rotherham Titans 48 Wetherby 0 - Sunday 13th January 2008

To say Wetherby U16's start to 2008 has been mixed would be something of an understatement.

Their opening encounter brought a 55-7 thrashing of Baildon on 6th Jan, with an excellent team performance overcoming any excesses of the festive season to give their opponents few crumbs of comfort as Wetherby ran in 7 tries, four of them coming from Will Lockwood who even more remarkably on this occasion had returned after some absence to his former position of prop forward. Tries also from flanker Julian Mason, No 8 Dave Wilson and Lock Dan Hay emphasised the dominance of Wetherby's pack, whilst the back division, somewhat disrupted by injury absences proved consistently threatening in attack and almost impregnable in defence, the centre partnership of James Picker and regular No 8 Alex Hills managing to repel anything Baildon could throw at them.

Sadly, this performance was not matched this week when they suffered an overwhelming 48-0 defeat at the hands of a significantly bigger, fitter and more determined Rotherham Titans squad.

Three tries down at half time having played against a strong wind which prevented any relief in defence through the boot, Wetherby could perhaps have been expected to turn the pressure back on their opponents, but the visitors raised the intensity of their forward play to give Wetherby only a minority of possession and consistently snuffed out Wetherby's attacks with aggressive defence. All too often Rotherham capitalised on uncharacteristically sloppy technique by Wetherby in the mauls and particularly carrying the ball into rucks, thus stealing precious turnover ball from which they counter attacked with pace and incisive running. For their part Wetherby did not really make best use of the ball they had and largely failed to use the strong wind to effect in tactical kicking, nor was the ball moved away from the bigger Rotherham pack to the wings where Alex Long and the ever pacier Ross Brown could have proved more of a potent attacking weapon. Consequently as the game progressed the visitors confidence and stranglehold grew stronger and Wetherby can only look back in regret on a number of errors of judgement and execution, including clear overlaps ignored and failed passes, which could have kept the game within reach.

Although not easy to pick many positives from such a result, with so little possession Wetherby were almost always on the defensive and the committed, courageous cover tackling of some individuals undoubtedly prevented even further damage and was certainly to be applauded, notably Jack Mudd at Full Back, Ross Brown on the wing and Jonny Day, moving from flanker to Full Back for the latter stages of the game following an injury to Mudd.

Baildon 7 Wetherby 55 - Sunday 6th January 2008

The opening encounter of 2008 brought a 55-7 thrashing of Baildon, with an excellent team performance overcoming any excesses of the festive season to give their opponents few crumbs of comfort as Wetherby ran in 7 tries, four of them coming from Will Lockwood who even more remarkably on this occasion had returned after some absence to his former position of prop forward. Tries also from flanker Julian Mason, No 8 Dave Wilson and Lock Dan Hay emphasised the dominance of Wetherby's pack, whilst the back division, somewhat disrupted by injury absences proved consistently threatening in attack and almost impregnable in defence, the centre partnership of James Picker and regular No 8 Alex Hills managing to repel anything Baildon could throw at them.

Wetherby 31 Leeds Corinthians 0 - Sunday 9th December 2007

After the previous week's disappointing crash from the Yorkshire Plate quarter final, Wetherby showed their character and resolved to return to winning ways on Sunday which they duly did with some aplomb, running in five unanswered tries against visiting Corinthians.

Within minutes of the kick off the Wetherby pack began to dominate and several surging powerful drives from lock Dan Hay, who was in a truly rich vein of form, took the ball comfortably across the gain line on every occasion, setting up good position and quality ruck ball to give scrum half Charlie Fox options which he duly varied with intelligence and maturity to make the best of every opportunity. A set piece blind side move from one such position was worked well to see No 8 Dave Wilson power over for the opening try with centre James Picker converting.

Largely one way traffic in the first half saw Wetherby notch up two more tries. The first courtesy of the sheer pace of Ross Brown on the right wing who finished bravely diving for the corner after several phases of clinically recycled ball and incisive running lines from the newly combined centre partnership of James Picker and Alex Hills, the latter showing his tremendous all round playing calibre in making an excellent return to the three quarters. The second came from stand off Myles Oates, who followed up a kick to pressure the visiting full back into an error on his five metre line, which Oates gratefully capitalised on to scamper over for another five points. In truth at least two further tries could and should have come Wetherby's way had not lapses of concentration prevented seen the final pass from going to hand when flying left wing Alex Long would surely have outpaced the defence to an open line. Ultimately these lapses did not prove critical to the day's result, though on another occasion they could well have made the difference. Wetherby must reflect on this and work in training to eliminate such frustrating basic errors.

With some half time changes, a little disruption crept into the hosts performance and Corinthians put together a sustained spell of better form themselves, driving the ball more confidently around the fringes to put Wetherby under some consistent pressure and occasionally letting their quick and ever threatening right winger loose to give Wetherby some real problems to handle. However the defence in the end held out with the back three of Jack Mudd, looking comfortably in charge at full back together with wingers Ross Brown and Christian Davies linking and working well to counter attack from any less than perfect field kicking and an awesome tackling display from the clearly hungry Myles Oates who returned from his week's absence to crunch or upend anything in his sights - much to the increasingly ill-tempered frustration of his victims !

Another versatile performer Will Lockwood, moved back up to bolster the front row in the absence of three regular Wetherby props and seemed to acquit himself with some ease, finding the energy to regularly pop up in support of his three quarters and on one occasion picking up a loose ball some 25 yards out to power through at least two defenders and take what should have been the most unlikely of tries were it not for his sheer strength and determination. Again Picker added the extras.

Wetherby's showcase try, which delighted the home support, began from a scrum on about half way, from which Oates found a gap in the Corinthian line and tore up field. When he was hauled down by the cover defence, Wetherby's support was first there in the form of flankers Will Booth and Jonny Day whose decision making and technique were again excellent and ensured quickly recycled ball. Dan Hay then ground out yet more vital yards with a further immense carry and presented text book ball for the ever feisty Day to drive on and finally Wilson to prove unstoppable and finish off for his brace of tries.

All in all a spirited and more than satisfying team effort on which to end the year. With several in-form individuals putting down notable performances, some in particular out of their regular positions, selection is having to consider increasingly interesting and genuinely positive and healthy questions. The whole squad should surely be looking forward to returning to competitive action after their Christmas conditioning break.

Baildon 7 Wetherby 45 - Sunday 4th November, Yorkshire Plate First Round

Wetherby U16's progressed through to the quarter finals of the Yorkshire Plate with a comfortable win at Baildon last Sunday

Playing up the slope in the first half Wetherby seemed to take time to get into their stride and for 20 minutes or so were in a close battle with the home side, albeit largely through their own heated and poor decision making together with a fair degree of aimless kicking from several guilty players, which served only to squander possession and allow their hosts to run strongly back down the slope at them.

At times Wetherby's running lines and handling in the three quarters were excellent and the work rate from the back row was most impressive, in particular flanker Will Booth who was outstanding in attack and who continually pressurised the Baildon stand off in defence This brought continuity of possession for Wetherby and on one occasion led to their first try after stand off Myles Oates receiving quick ball from the ruck, carved through the ragged Baildon defence, dummying his way past two defenders to score under the posts. Centre Kieran Fleming in similar circumstances also raced away from the field in broken play to score and the ever menacing winger Will Lockwood touched down the simplest of close range tries after a pinpoint kick to the corner from Oates turned and isolated the defending winger who lost possession just yards from his try line.

Early in the game Wetherby sadly threw away their chance of a clean sheet after needlessly kicking away the ball to the Baildon winger who countered with sufficient pace to round Wetherby's defence and showed good agility to step through the last cover tackle and keep his side at that point still in contention with a converted try.

In the second half as Wetherby's pack started to assert themselves running down the slope, they gradually took the game beyond doubt with some fine foraging and sniping work from scrum half Charlie Fox and the regular close range charges from prop Alex Halls, picking up a brace of tries for himself in the process. In a mirror of Wetherby's first half error, the Baildon full back put a kick straight into the hands of flying winger Alex Long who responded as he so often does by outpacing the entire defence down the left wing and cutting back inside to score beneath the posts.

Although in the end Wetherby were undoubtedly the better side, there were aspects of their game which at times were equally undoubtedly below par. In the early stages they seemed to show little control or organisation up front and on occasions seemed almost panicked into throwing out poor quality ball, even from what was invariably very good line out possession. For parts of the game they were also beaten at the breakdown by a more determined and vigorous Baildon pack, turning over ball on several occasions through firstly lack of urgency by the immediate supporters and subsequently poor technique in holding and defending in particular the rucks. The three quarters too probably missed out on some opportunities through poor alignment at the attacking breakdown, being simply too flat and overrunning the pass. As the game wore on with Baildon under the cosh and suffering a couple of telling injuries, Wetherby's victory was certain and perhaps as a consequence their structure and discipline deteriorated noticeably, a habit they must work hard to avoid if they are to succeed against sterner opposition.

In summary, Wetherby can of course be happy with a comfortable win and yet knowing they can perform significantly better, but they must consider and learn some lessons from their performance and work to improve those weaker aspects in the coming weeks.

Next week they visit Morley, meet 9.15 at WRUFC.

Pocklington 17 vs. Wetherby 16 - Sunday 14th October 2007

In a thoroughly entertaining and most combative match, a depleted but valiant Wetherby were pipped in the last few minutes at Pocklington last Sunday.

With a number of stalwarts absent, a reorganised Wetherby side showed no sign of apprehension in the early part of the match, completely dominating up front, both in the set piece, with props Louis Pickard and Tom Shaw proving themselves to be the immovable objects in the scrum and around the fringes of the rucks and mauls, hooker Alex Halls and lock Dave Wilson both taking excellent crash balls from scrum half Charlie Fox to power through the hard yards. Support and rucking on the whole was good though on occasions a lack of ball control by Wetherby when going into contact combined with a greater awareness and urgency by the streetwise Pocklington back row, who were a fraction of a second quicker to react at the breakdown and so picked up easy turnover ball and frustrated several promising Wetherby attacks.

With the pack in this rumbustuous form and without the certainty of his regular back division, astute fly half Myles Oates varied the attack as much as he was able, with some cultured territorial kicking mixed with odd half breaks of his own and, when the occasion allowed, spinning quick ball to the pace men of Alex Long and Christian Davies out wide. There were also several opportunities for the fiery and versatile Jonny Day in an excellent debut at inside centre to find gaps in the defence and get his pack moving forward on to the ball.

After sustained pressure Wetherby were able to capitalise on a penalty directly in front of the posts, with Ian Wilkinson at No 8 for the day, converting the points. Minutes later the exercise was repeated and by half time a try in the corner from second row Tom Bottomley, countered with a penalty and converted try to the hosts, saw Wetherby with the most slender of leads at 11-10 and the supporters still unable to make any predictions.

The second half continued to be an extremely close match between two particularly determined teams. The game flowed at times from end to end with both sides prepared to counter attack and run the ball whenever possible, full back Will Davies notable in this regard for Wetherby, on one occasion coming into the line from a central scrum and creating the overlap from which quick and accurate handling saw centre Day deservedly dive over to extend Wetherby's lead. Some sound tactical kicking from both fly halves also saw the territorial advantage switch repeatedly to and fro in a matter of moments, though possibly greater fitness and mental focus on the part of the hosts, compounded by the loss to Wetherby of prop Halls and then centre Day through injury saw Pocklington begin to gain the ascendancy. Mid way through the half Wetherby conceded the softest of tries, a lapse in concentration allowing the Pocklington flanker to break clear from a maul some 20 yards out and simply win the footrace to the line.

With some well organised defence and fearsome tackling exemplified by Oates, Shaw and back row Will Booth, Wetherby stood their ground in the last quarter against a sustained attack by an increasingly dominant and aggressive Pocklington pack. However in the dying minutes of the game their line was finally breached as the hosts worked through several phases and combined forwards and backs to finally outflank the defence and take the lead.

In almost the last play of the game, Wetherby hopes were raised as Jack Mudd, also filling an unfamiliar role of centre, set off on another spirited counter attacking run down the touchline and beating the first defender with an accurate chip into space, began the race to gather his own kick. However the hosts full back managed to collect the ball and clear the danger, preserving his side's winning margin, on balance probably deserved, for the remaining moments.

In summary a very good performance by Wetherby, particularly with the rearranged line up, which could so easily have brought victory through sheer spirit and determination. In the end their opponents stole the day by capitalising on only a few simple technical errors in contact and perhaps a spell of complacency and fatigue induced loss of focus by Wetherby in the third quarter of the game. The return match, already in the fixture card, should prove an interesting contest.

Wetherby 36 vs Old Rishworthians 0 - Sunday 7th October 2007

Another convincing victory on Sunday extended Wetherby's excellent run this season, this time at the expense of visitors Old Rishworthians, who rarely had a sniff at the Wetherby line in reply to six tries from their not so charitable hosts.

With a large and vocal crowd of avid supporters and in almost Mediterranean conditions, Wetherby began the game with a deliberate plan to play a tight driving game and maximise forwards superiority and power in order to drain their opponents' strength and resolve early in the game [any chance coach had been watching England the day before ?]. After a few sloppy minutes of complacency in which a lively Rishworthians team game them a few scares, the Grange Park crew stirred themselves and thereafter began to dominate in almost all areas. From the base of a ruck some 15m out prop Alex Halls soon opened the scoring with a bullocking run and only minutes later repeated the exercise in almost the same spot, using power and a perfect body angle to force his way to and across the line, taking over a couple of defenders as he touched down.

With the sun, temperature and on occasions tempers rising higher, Wetherby apart from a few unnecessary and unwise words with the official, maintained self discipline and concentrated on hurting their opponents where it counts - the scoreboard. Consequently prolific and powerful centre James Picker was soon to add his name as he anticipated well, supported and rounded off a scything counter attacking break from stand off Myles Oates. Before the interval a further try was notched up by winger Christian Davies, who dived for the line under pressure and showed why his increasing confidence, pace and finishing power is deservedly bringing him an increasing tally of tries even at this early stage of the season.

After the interval and with substitutions bringing fresh legs to both front row and back three, there was going to be little respite for Rishworthians who although heavily outgunned up front, showed huge character and resolve in defence and mounted several promising counter attacks through a quick and strong running three quarter division. They could not however stem the tide and conceded further tries to Wetherby captain, towering Tom Bottomley at lock, James Picker, who simply powered over his opponent to collect a brace and a further unfortunately disallowed try for Oates after a rehearsed decoy move flummoxed the defence - and evidently the referee - to create the gap.

With conversions from Halls and Oates (but no singing thankfully !) Wetherby ran out convincing victors at 36-0 and perhaps more importantly gave another total team display in terms of maturity, tactics and fitness and demonstrated growing skills in most of the game's key aspects. The defensive commitment and organisation was good, notably from Oates, Picker and Fleming as an increasingly cohesive and formidable inside three. The power and control of the forwards marshalled by the wily Charlie Fox at 9 was again impressive, with fine and particularly intelligent performances from Dan Hay, Rhys Hamilton Evans and Dave Wilson who it seemed on every occasion chose the right option and so gave away no turnover ball in the contact areas. The finishing skills out wide were also worthy of mention as each of Wetherby's four wingers over the course of the game made real ground with a combination of pace and clever running lines.

With midweek training continuing now on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the team's skills, organisation and fitness levels are increasing rapidly and confidence continues to grow.

Wetherby 17 vs West Park 0 - Sunday 30th September 2007

Wetherby U16's continued an impressive start to the season with another win at Grange Park, this time over old adversaries West Park Leeds.

The supporters were immediately given a display of competitive and aggressive rugby with the early pace of the game being quite frantic and neither side giving any quarter around the rucks and mauls. At times a couple of the visitors' perhaps overexuberant tackles and footwork in the rucks could have justified harsher action from the official. However there is no doubt a flowing and highly entertaining game ensued in which Wetherby tested their fitness to the full, with flankers Mason and Booth highly impressive, both supporting in attack and in their fearless defensive work when Wetherby were under at times severe pressure from a powerful Park pack.

The first half was very evenly matched with several chances for both sides being either thwarted by excellent defensive work, in Wetherby's case not least from inside three quarters Oates, Picker, and Fleming who consistently bottled up their threatening opposite numbers or, unfortunately by missed opportunities in attack, notably on a couple of occasions cutting back infield when more confidence in their undoubtedly superior pace down the touchline would surely have brought better results.

Wetherby's much improved rucking technique again bore fruit with almost no turnover ball given away and it was good also to see the driving maul carried off successfully, gaining repeated territorial advantage for the hosts and illustrating another increasingly formidable weapon in their pack's armoury. An immense performance from Lock Dan Hay combined with powerful No. 8 Dave Wilson to provide the core of this barely stoppable attacking option. A fine first half display by Wingers Christian Davies, Ross Brown and the very much in form Will Davies at Full Back ensured that the interval saw a clean sheet for Wetherby's defence and with an impressive bench still at their disposal, the home side were sufficiently confident that they twice opted to forego simple penalty kicks and a certain half time lead in favour of keeping the ball in hand.

As the game progressed in the second half, the early pace of the game began to test out the fitness levels of both teams and it was Wetherby who increasingly appeared to come out on top with Captain Tom Bottomley at second row latching on to the end of a backs move to crash over for Wetherby's opening score, Oates adding the extras. West Park however continued to fight back and kept the game in the balance with some worrying moments for Wetherby as they scrambled to defend their thus far unbreached line.

The Wetherby squad's overall strength - and selectors' headaches - were soon illustrated further as substitutions brought added pressure to bear on the visitors. The tireless Will Booth moved to No 8 in a reshuffled pack, allowing the introduction of dynamic Jonny Day to the back row and Wilkinson and debutant Pickard to both show their mettle at Prop whilst the versatile Hamilton-Evans settled back into hooker. This formed a revitalised platform from which to attack and the introduction of a back three of outstanding attacking pace allowed Wetherby to capitalise on this to the full. Jack Mudd, in at Full Back, once again read the game to perfection, setting up excellent counter attacks from his opponents' increasingly pressurised defensive clearance kicks and similarly Alex Long, returning to his favoured hunting ground on the left wing, proved almost unstoppable on the counter attack scoring one try himself in the corner after an immense solo run around the outside of the defence and setting up a second with another superb high ball catch and weaving run before beating the full back with a perfectly timed pass to the supporting Fleming who with pace to burn easily outstripped the chasing defenders and touched down for Wetherby's third try, effectively sealing the result with only minutes remaining and giving a more deserved reflection of a genuinely impressive team display.

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Wetherby 12 vs Driffield 21 - Yorkshire Cup 1st Round Sunday 23rd September 2007

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Wetherby 17 vs Baildon 5 - Sunday 16th September 2007

Wetherby U16s scored a fine win today against Baildon who were after revenge over a defeat last season. From the off it was very tight, both teams without match play looking uncertain particularly in the line out. After looking like the Baildon forwards were getting the upper hand especially in the scrum, the excellent Wetherby pack fought back. An intelligent quick tap from scrum half Charlie Fox, and a short pop pass, resulted in a well deserved try from explosive hooker Alex Hall. Baildon to their credit fought back with good application and scored a hard fought try to make the half time scores 5-5.

Baildon came out in the second half with the wind slightly in their favour and what seemed to be a game plan to match. Twice they used the wind to gain advantage from powerful kicks from a talented no' 10. Then we saw the result of some excellent training by Wetherby pay off. Strong running by centre James Picker broke the Baildon defence and with perfect support play from Keiron Fleming scored an outstanding try.

What could have resulted in a further score for Wetherby, left powerful winger Will Lockwood going for the line with only a last grasp tackle by three Baildon defenders stopping him short of the line.

By now some outstanding performances had been made notably by Will Booth who was both brave in defence and outstanding in attacking support. A special mention should be made to Rhys Hamilton-Evans who today played a great game at second row moved from his usual hooker position. Then Myles Oates, as captain, directed play well but the quality he showed in clearing out the player in defence and his body position when caught in a very awkward tackle shows he has a great rugby future. Alex Hills rounded off a great display by picking up from the back of the scrum and scoring the most well deserved try of the day. 17-5

match slideshows

scrum to wetherby