Beverley Braves under-nines’ six-match unbeaten run came to an end at Holderness Vikings earlier this month.
A below- par Braves could not cope with the strong running and excellent passing of the Vikings, eventually losing by 10 tries to 9.
Despite the defeat there were still many strong individual performances, including Tom Colley, who won the man-of-the-match award with a great stint in defence in only his sixth game for Beverley.
William Wallis also continued his amazing try scoring run, with seven in the game.
The Braves started badly going 2-0 down and never led in the game. But they hit back on re-start after the second Vikings try with Oliver Loney barging through the first line of defence and sprinting away to score.
Wallis got his first after Holderness went 3-1 up, good work in attack from Tom Marr and Tom Sparkes helping create the position.
Holderness scored two in quick succession to make it 5-2 and at that point the poor start looked set to continue.
However the Braves dug deep and Wallis scored two, one from his own line, to make it 5-4.
The Braves’ defence tightened up a bit thanks to hard work from Tom Newton, Joseph Denis and Thomas Cohen, but it was not quite enough to stop a further Vikings’ try.
Lewis Egan looked dangerous running with the ball and it was one of his elusive cross-field runs that made the fourth an easy score for Wallis to make it 6-5 at half-time and leave the game finely balanced.
Holderness scored first before Wallis got his fifth but fresh legs in the form of William Sandford, Mathew Madin and William Kirkup – the latter two having played only one game each prior to this one – helped shore up the defence and put the Braves on the front foot.
Ryan Deane was unlucky to be tackled into touch after a great touchline run and Dylan English was tackled just short after a mazy run on the fifth tackle.
Both teams traded tries including two more for Wallis but at 10-8 time was running out for the Braves.
Ethan Rowbotham scored a deserved try in the right hand corner after an amazing arcing run but it was too little, too late and the final whistle blew with the Vikings pressing for a further score.
