The rugby here was not exactly a thing of beauty but it brought Beverley the bonus point win they desperately wanted. There were patches of good play but somehow this game never really got going, probably due in part to some over-enthusiastic refereeing. Beverley had to play nearly all the second half with fourteen men after Fraley Hopa had been red carded for an illegal tackle and a tremendous job they made of it. Already up against a bigger pack that bristled with aggression they more than held their own and eventually outscored their opponents by four tries to two.
Beverley were slow to get going. They dropped the ball at the kick-off and for some time struggled to get out of their 22, hardly getting any possession and kicking it away pointlessly when they did. After ten minutes Northern fly half Donal Collins slotted a penalty to put the home side ahead. Beverley’s response was immediate, if fortuitous. Almost from the re-start a pass back in the home defence caught the recipient looking directly into the sun and the ball rebounded off him into the hands of Junior Tupai who raced over for a try which Phil Duboulay converted.
Once Beverley had settled their pacy backs immediately started to pose a serious threat. Tomasi Tunami with a powerful run down the right touchline put Goran Jelencic in for a second converted Beverley try. Up front the home pack were proving a handful but behind the scrum the Northern handling was error prone and Beverley on several occasions should have capitalised with further scores. In the event Northern came back with a try from their winger Dom Fawcett and when Collins reduced the deficit still further to 14-11 it looked as though Beverley might come to rue the chances they had missed.
Early in the second half Hopa was dismissed and a third Collins penalty brought the scores level. From then on Beverley were on the back foot. A red card looked extremely harsh it must be said and was particularly unfortunate because Hopa had been having another fine game at number eight. As the game progressed Beverley increasingly fell foul of the referee Scott Tulloch whose penalty count against them accelerated as the game advanced. Indeed in the later stages so thick and fast came the penalties that it sometimes seemed Mr. Tulloch barely had time to pause for breath before blowing for another infringement.
Things were not going Beverley’s way. Back chat at the referee after being penalised cost them ten metres which enabled Collins to bang over his fourth penalty and put Northern 17-14 into the lead for the first time. None the less the Beverley pack was playing heroically despite being a man down and the backs always looked capable of producing something. Several times they nearly got there. Sam Atiola was stopped just short of the line and on another occasion only a poor final pass prevented him going over at the corner.
With the game in its final quarter Beverley clinched it with two tries in the space of five minutes. From a tap penalty on the right the ball was moved across field to Goran Jelencic on the opposite wing who raced over. Duboulay converted from the touchline and Beverley were back in front at 21-17. Five minutes later Chris Brant broke direct from a scrum and made a lovely run down the touchline before sending Jelencic in for his third try. Duboulay’s conversion was confirmed by both touchjudges but overruled by the referee. No surprise there.
Northern threw everything into a frantic finish. Beverley had to fight a rearguard action to keep them out and penalty after penalty was conceded. Eventually Northern were awarded a penalty try which Collins converted but that was as far as they could get. In the end it was a good win for Beverley but rightly or wrongly they will almost certainly hope that Mr Tulloch does not cross their path again this season.
Final Score: Northern 24 Beverley RUFC 26 | Reported by John Nursey
