This was arguably the blue and golds best performance of the season against the league leaders at the Beverley Leisure Centre on Saturday.
Just as in the two previous meetings between these two sides which saw heavy defeats for Beverley, the visitors were at their clinical best scoring off almost every opportunity. East Hull were 24-0 up after 35 minutes, and the writing looked on the wall for the home side.
Beverley, however, had other ideas. They finally got some quality sets of six in and forced a couple of line drop-outs. The pressure paid off as Ryan Watkin got an astute pass away to Lee Stevens, who then got a miracle offload away to send Phil Hill over beside the posts. Watkin added the extras, and the half-time arrears were reduced to 24-6.
Beverley ARLC came out for the second half buoyant and tightened up in defence, which led to frustration in the visiting ranks. As Easts passed the ball out wide in their own, half a pass went to ground. It was eagerly pounced on by Ian Lane, who sprinted the remaining 30 meters to score too wide out for Watkin to improve.
Easts then added two somewhat soft tries, which were both converted. This, however, seemed to galvanise the host’s spirits. The forwards ably led by player coach Guy Adams began to make inroads.
Louis Hubbard, Will Mail, Phil Hill, Rich Etherington, Joe Wileman all deserve praise for their efforts. Hubbard was particularly outstanding in taking the ball up despite a constant barrage of high tackles.
After a sustained spell of pressure, Rich Etherington forced his way over despite the attentions of a melee of defenders. Watkin lost his footing with the conversion attempt. The momentum was now firmly in the home sides favour. A teasing cross-field kick on the last tackle by Watkin saw Lee Falcus leap to score in the corner. Watkin made no mistake this time with the conversion.
Beverley began to press even more and throw caution to the wind. A long pass which possibly could have produced a scoring opportunity for the home side went straight into the hands of an Easts player who gleefully sprinted 70 meters for an interception try. This was just the get out of jail-free card that the visitors required.
Beverley were not done yet though. As the minutes ticked away Ryan Watkin got a pass away to send Steve Connolly over for a well deserved try. Connolly gave an inspirational performance joining the line from full back to great effect at regular intervals despite reguiring running repairs to a head wound. Watkin converted and Beverley continued to seek more points, but they ran out of time.
Man of the match was Guy Adams but in reality, all 16 players deserve a pat on the back.
This Saturday Beverley face an intriguing clash away to Scarborough Pirates. The two previous meetings between these two side saw a 20-19 victory for Beverley in the Yorkshire Cup and a 8-0 victory for Scarborough in the league.
Player are requested to assemble at the Hodgsons at 11.30am for the team bus. Kick off is 2pm at the Eastway Sports Club,Eastfield,Scarborough.
Final Score: Beverley ARLC 26 East Hull ‘A’ 42 | Reported by Nick Robinson
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