This was always going to be a massive match for the Beverley Braves, playing top side West Hull, who are undefeated in the league, but they could never had guessed just how tough this was going to be.
West Hull scored within only a few minutes after mistakes by the Braves gave the opposition the ball. A few of the lads had different roles to play today but West Hull did not give them the opportunity to settle into their new positions.
Owen Harrison had a massive game in the middle and tackled his heart out but decisions were sadly, too many times going against Beverley and this seemed to knock the stuffing out of the side and made an already difficult match even harder than it should have been.
The side line could see the frustration in the Braves faces as they battled hard but mistakes were also been made in slippery conditions. This cost them dearly as Hull scored again as they capitalised on this with clinical precision.
They drew the Braves to one corner of the pitch in attack and while they were busy defending and bunched in one corner, slipped the ball out wide and crossed the line unchallenged on the wing. West’s also made mistakes though but the Braves failed to sieve the opportunities, which were very few and far between.
Constant tackling to hold the onslaught tired the lads out in defence. Their effort is to be commended though. Conor Egan and Jamie Branton put in a string of good tackles and Harry Gray made some crucial blows to halt the runners. Big in defence was Kurt Pelham who tackles low every time taking down the biggest of players and is one to be watched for the future.
The gaps were still being found out wide by West Hull though and they ran more tries in unchallenged moving the score to 20 points unanswered. Callum Officer, who is such a force to be reckoned with in the middle had a fantastic run, pushing aside the West’s tackles and from this push the ball went out wide from James McGahey, it took a deflection and a difficult ball was taken superbly by Tom Woods who forced his way over the line to score what was a difficult try.
This gave Beverley a much needed boost and the whistle blew for half time 22 – 4.
The second half started off so much better as Beverley was this time holding the quick footed Hull side, but still mistakes were made to stop them gaining any kind of momentum.
Dylan Clifford made some strong powerful runs that on many occasion gave Beverley a bit of breathing space. Callam Bielby came on from sub and had a fantastic run to give some impressive yards and James Sherwin accelerated so quickly when he got a break on his wing only to be halted by a suspect tackle.
Beverley was holding but a string of injuries, not least to McGahey who never bottles out of any tackle, followed taking 5 players from the pitch and this totally upset the format of the team.
West took advantage of the situation and ran in numerous tries and Beverley could not cope. The final score was 44 – 4.
Man of the match went to in form Kurt Pelham who was outstanding.
