Beverley Braves under 12s were taught a harsh lesson at Keyingham, crushed by 40 points to 8 by a well drilled but skilful team display by Holderness Vikings.
The Braves were 28nil down at half-time despite the defensive efforts of Oliver Loney, Ethan Rowbotham and George Bennett-Teare.
There was very little of positive note to come out of the first half for the Braves as Holderness got on a roll and scored five tries. Two of these tries came from short kick offs as Beverley tried to regain possession and halt that roll. In total Beverley had the ball just four times in the first half and only managed to complete one of these sets.
With that sort of display with the ball in hand, they were always going to have their work cut out for them.
The second half showed a marked improvement with both sides scoring two tries each, the Braves first coming from the prolific William Wallis, his thirteenth of the season, the other from the opposite centre Archie Murdoch – his third in two games.
The tries were the highlight for the Braves in an otherwise forgettable performance, Wallis jinking over whilst Murdoch stepped inside and then raced 70 metres to touch down. A further highlight was the best performance to date from prop Matthew Brown with some strong drives when he came on for the second half.
Stand-off Marcus Walker was limited to defensive work with so little ball in the first half, but like his half-back partner Ryan Deane and hooker Jack Turner still found it difficult in the second playing behind a beaten pack. Walker’s conversion attempt to Wallis’ try probably summed up the day for the Braves hitting the post and bouncing out.
As a team the Beverley Braves need to regroup and build on their second-half display and prove this result was just a blip.
Final Score: Holderness Vikings 40 Beverley Braves 8 | Reported by Dave Walker
