Beverley RUFC cannot afford much more like this. They have enough quality to be a top six side yet they have now lost five matches, at least four of them games they should have won. Today they were beaten by the bottom placed side who fully deserved their victory even though Beverley were leading with a quarter of an hour to go. Again the problems lay largely with carelessness and sloppy handling. Beverley had more than enough chances to put this game to bed but one disaster followed another and they paid the price. They were far from their best here and struggled in several key positions.
Early on Waterloo had nearly all the play. They missed a penalty after two minutes and then flanker Carl Nolan knocked on with the line at his mercy. Beverley somehow survived the early pressure and against the run of play went ahead after twenty minutes with the best try of the day. Beverley were playing with plenty of endeavour, if not with much success, and a fine move from deep in their own half involving Junior Tupai, Lee Birch and Tomasi Tanumi ended with Tanumi touching down under the posts. Phil Duboulay converted to give Beverley a 7-0 lead.
It lasted barely a minute. Not for the first or last time a loose pass was thrown in the Beverley 22 and Waterloo winger James O’Brien made an easy interception to cruise over for a try which centre Sean Colbourne converted. Beverley could make little headway against an enthusiastic home side and struggled to get out of their own half. On half an hour Waterloo went in front with an unconverted try by hooker Alick Croft from a penalty line-out and then stretched further ahead with another from full back Liam Reeves after Tom Carr had been penalised for a high tackle.
With one careless error following another there was not much cheer for the travelling Beverley supporters. A break by Tanumi on his own 10 metre line and a superb fifty metre dash did briefly raise the spirits. Sadly five metres from the line he needlessly threw a pass outside him and the ball was knocked on. It just about summed up Beverley’s day. On the stroke of halftime Duboulay kicked a penalty to bring it back to 19-10 but a vastly improved performance was needed in the second half if Beverley were to turn it round.
And there was. For twenty minutes Beverley were completely on top. Duboulay kicked another penalty and after Joe Pickets had touched down following a lineout and drive to the line Duboulay converted to put Beverley back in front at 20-19. The Beverley pack was giving as good as it got with Tonci Buzov and Aaron Carroll especially prominent. James McKay too had his moments and Pickets enjoyed another outstanding match. Beverley had enough chances to wrap it all up but failed to make anything of them. One knock-on by Richard Bussey with the line gaping was ultimately to prove particularly costly.
Waterloo were playing with tremendous endeavour and verve and gradually took the game back to Beverley. They generally looked altogether sharper than Beverley and there seemed to be a good deal more urgency about them. Beverley had plenty of ball and Birch looked dangerous whenever he had it in his hands but there was too much attempted elaboration in midfield and compared to Waterloo it all looked a bit laboured and ponderous. Had Beverley been better served at scrum half it might have been different. But with an erratic and sometimes non-existent delivery from the base of the scrum Duboulay was given a difficult time and found it hard to get his line moving to any effect.
For the last twenty minutes it was again all Waterloo and they went flat out for victory. Eventually it was limply handed to them when Beverley were caught loitering offside and Colbourne had an easy kick at goal to snatch the win.
Final Score : Firwood Waterloo 22 Beverley RUFC 20 | Reported by John Nursey
