Once again, the Beverley Braves under 13s were struggling for numbers due to injuries, other commitments and holidays and kicked off at Myton Warriors with just 12 men.
However, this was not evident as they started the game confidently with a good first set finishing with a kick down field on the back of the strong wind followed by a strong defensive set against a much, much bigger Myton side.
With just under five minutes on the clock, Beverley had their first real attack with the ball going right before William Wallis cut back inside to score to the right of the uprights and with Jack Turner’s conversion it was a good start for the Braves.
Soon after it was 12-0, Wallis once again racing through after some good build up work and Turner’s conversion. Scrum half Lewis Egan was in the thick of things revelling in the space he found between the giants of the Myton pack and with this freedom and the darting runs of Turner from dummy half Beverley looked set for a convincing victory. Myton had other ideas however, and after a couple of chances went begging for Beverley Myton got on a roll.
Up to this point Beverley’s defence, despite the obvious difference in size had coped well. Led by Ethan Rowbotham and ably assisted by Oliver Gresswell and Joe Dennis, Myton were kept in check, in fact, Dennis had an immense game in defence, topping the tackle count with a huge workload.
Matt Brown and Josh Pearson took the ball up well to give Beverley good field position but all this time the Braves were playing one man down. Soon the cavalry arrived in the shape of Henry Hughes, who gamely played more than half this match in the unfamiliar position of centre despite having played rugby union earlier in the day.
Things started to a little wrong for the Braves towards the end of the first half and with Myton getting a couple of penalties they managed to force over for a well-deserved try on the stroke of half-time. It meant the Braves would turn around into the wind for the second half with just an eight-point breathing space.
This margin was just four points early in the second half as once again on the back of a string of penalties Myton forced their way over and the game was any bodies, certainly the Myton lads could sense a chance for their first victory of the season, having pressurised the Beverley line earlier only for full back Ben Hodder to coolly take the kick on his own line. At one-point Beverley were down to eleven with injuries and a sin binning, but they gamely kept plugging away.
Marcus Walker’s towering kick off was left to bounce before being fielded by Myton only for a strong Ryan Deane and Hughes tackle putting the Myton player in to touch. This turned the games momentum William Kirkup had a fantastic jinking run halted just short of the line and soon after the ball was worked right again and Wallis dummied before crashing over, the conversion was missed but Beverley had some breathing space again at 8-16.
Myton were not done though and after another strong attack, the kick rolled out of touch in goal, quick-thinking standoff Walker, a constant thorn in the Myton side, raced to the 20 metre took the tap and with the majority of the Warriors side up the field to chase the original kick he had a clear run to touch down.
80 metres further up the field, Walker converted his own try it was now.
8-22 and the Braves were home and dry. This was not the end of the scoring though as Walker took the line on again, slipped the ball to the supporting Man of the Match Wallis, who this time was provider by putting the supporting Rowbotham over for a well deserved try.
Final Score: Myton Warriors 8 Beverley Braves 26
