The blue and golds slipped to an opening-day defeat on their travels as they were beaten by Lambwath Lions 12-6 on Saturday.
Despite defending well all afternoon but in the end had to do just too much tackling due to frequently turning over possession early in the tackle count. This ensured a lions share of possession for the home side.
With both defences dominating the proceedings, there were very few clean breaks early in the game.
Jake Hart-Fisher made a telling break from deep inside his own half after a quarter of an hour only to see the ball slip from his grasp, and the resultant field position was thrown away. The hosts took the lead courtesy of one of the many towering bombs, which were diffused immaculately all afternoon.
Unfortunately, this was the only bomb that was fumbled and Lambwath pounced to score in the corner.
The hosts continued to press with half time approaching. One teasing kick into the in-goal area nearly resulted in a try, but some smart work from Nathan Hoggard saw him kick the ball dead. The scores remained at 4-0 at the interval.
The early moments of the second half saw yet more pressure from the hosts with many players working over time in defence. Sam Coleman got through a mountain of work here.
Finally, Beverley managed to get some pressure inside the visiting 20 meter zone. After several players went close to scoring Joe Wileman managed to force his way over beneath the posts despite the attempts of a melee of Lambwath defenders to hold him up over the line.
This was Joe’s first ever try for Beverley as he looks to secure a regular place in the starting lineup this season. Watkin converted to give the visitors a 6-4 lead.
The home side regained possession from the restart kick and immediately put the visitors under pressure which they proved to be more than capable of withstanding. They managed tohold out until ten minutes from time when they turned over possession ten meters away from their own line. The home side quickly shipped the ball out wide to score a converted try out on the right wing. Five minutes later they may extended their lead with a penalty.
The visitors refused to throw in the towel. They threw everything at the opposition. Ryan Watkin made one very telling break. Furthermore, CallumO’Connor went agonizingly close to getting over the line and man of the match Ian Lane got over the line, but lost the ball in the act of scoring.
However, Beverley just could not manage to breach the ‘all hands to the pump’ defence of the home side in the dying minutes.
This Saturday Beverley ARLC is at home to Scarborough Pirates in the Preliminary round of the BARLA Yorkshire Cup. The clash is an intriguing one for Beverley against their rivals from further up the east coast.
It was one win each for both sides in league encounters last season, so they appear very evenly matched. Beverley should be boosted by the return of Mike Cooper and new signing from Heworth ARLFC, Adam Jobling from work commitments and also the return of Lee Falcus from injury.
A match day programme will be on sale for this game that kicks off at 2pm at the Beverley Leisure Centre.
Final Score: Lambwath Lions 12 Beverley ARLC 6 | Reported by Nick Robinson
