Beverley Braves under 11s did not make enough use of the possession they had in this game and as a result came out on the wrong end of a 4- 24 score line against Holderness Vikings at Longcroft.
The visitors started well gaining a repeat set of six, but the Braves managed to hold on only to gift possession back to the visitors with an accidental offside from a clearing kick. The Vikings used this piece of good fortune to their benefit scoring a converted try to go 6nil up.
The Braves responded well to this setback with strong drives up field by the relentless George Bennett – Tere and Henry Hughes setting up the position for Marcus Walker to put up the high kick which was spilled by the Holderness full-back. Ethan Rowbotham was on hand to scoop up the loose ball and race clear to score wide on the left.
At 4-6 the Braves were back in the game and then defended as if their lives depended on it, Oliver Loney and man of the match Will Sanford putting in a huge amount of effort to come high up in the tackle count. In attack, orchestrated by Lewis Egan and Walker, the gaps began to appear and a break by the latter set up a great position with William Wallis and then Rowbotham going close to scoring on the back of it.
Eventually, Holderness did score again, and it looked like the half-time score would be 4-12 but good pressure on a Braves clearing kick gave the Vikings possession in the Beverley 20, and the Braves defence cracked again on the stroke of half-time to make it 4-18.
This was a cruel blow to Beverley, who had worked hard and deserved more from the first half which had also seen good offensive work from Ryan Deane, who found several gaps whilst Tom Cohen and Dylan English let nobody down with their limited chances with the ball in hand.
The second half saw the Braves again work really hard in defence, typified by some outstanding tackles from Tom Colley on the right wing and full-back William Kirkup, who saved some certain scores with his cover tackling.
The Braves, however, took the wrong option several times when close to the Holderness line and did not stick to their game plan.
With a little more composure, there were tries for the taking given the amount of pressure they were applying. That said Wallis and Rowbotham were both held up over the line, and the latter seemed to have scored again only to have been ruled short, one of several puzzling decisions during the game.
Harry Newton at acting half-back continues to improve his distribution skills whilst George Lees had a quieter game than recently but still looks dangerous with the ball in his hands.
Oliver Gresswell had few chances to show what he could do coming on in the second half on the right wing. The combined effort of the team was not enough to get that elusive score, and it was Holderness that finally broke down the right to score the only try of the second half.
Final Score: Beverley Braves 4 Holderness Vikings 24
