Beverley Braves under 13s were once again within a converted try of victory as a squad depleted by illness and injury travelled to Holderness Vikings.
Surely a win is not too far away for the Beverley lads who fought back from a ten and then later twelve point deficit to push the Vikings all the way.
Holderness started strongest and found themselves four points up after three minutes when a push at the scrum caught the Braves forwards out and secured possession for them to score on the left-hand side to make it 4nil. Holderness continued the pressure, but Beverley were working hard for each other in defence holding the Vikings out for three consecutive sets of six.
Oliver Gresswell and Loney tackled well all afternoon alongside the hard-working Will Swainston and Ethan Rowbotham with Holderness being held up over the line at one point. After 16 minutes of play entirely in the Braves half, the Beverley defence finally gave in and it was 10nil.
It was a time for a switch and although Kai Johnson had done well out of the scrum drawing in several Holderness defenders every time he had the ball hooker Jack Turner moved to the stand-off role and Rowbotham to hooker. This switch seemed to give Beverley a bit more go forward, and it was not long before William Wallis, who was outstanding in both defence and attack, made a break, passed to the supporting Harry Vorwerg, who finally got Beverley in to the Holderness half.
From this position, George Bennett-Teare who has improved week on week recently drove the ball up, got a quick play the ball allowing Rowbotham to scoot under the sticks. Turner’s conversion made it 10-6 at half time, and it was game on.
The second half plan was to build on the good work late in the first half, but Holderness had other ideas scoring two tries in three minutes on the right-hand side to make it 18-6 with seventeen minutes to play.
Josh Pearson replaced Gresswell at half-time, and he put in some big tackles but Beverley were dealt another blow when wing Will Kirkup – who had been solid in defence and in returning the kicks – had to retire with a shoulder injury.
With only one substitute second row, Gresswell found himself on the wing but this great team performance meant everyone put in the effort despite playing in unfamiliar positions. Holderness mounted another attack but when the ball went to ground, Vorwerg was the first to react and hacked the ball forward before picking up and scoring a great opportunist try under the posts.
Turner’s conversion meant Beverley were back within a converted try.
Three minutes later and two quick scoots from Lewis Egan and then Rowbotham set up the position for Egan to skip, dummy and bamboozle the Holderness defence before putting Vorwerg into a hole.
Vorwerg then let his pace do the rest diving over to score and with Turner showing no nerves to slot over the less than straight-forward conversion, it was all level at 18 all.
The Braves had it all to fight for now and with Ben Hodder having another secure game at full back alongside Tom Cohen on the wing who let nothing past him they had the pace to go on and win the game.
Wallis made another break down the right, and the winning try looked to be on the cards as he passed to Vorwerg, who was hauled down close to the line with the ball going to ground as he tried to get it back to the supporting Wallis. It was anybody’s game still, but two consecutive penalties marched Holderness back into Beverley’s half, and they got the winning score – again out on the right.
At 22-18 it was Beverley, who were camped on the Vikings line as the final whistle went, a good performance after a slow start but a disappointing result.
Men of the match were Vorwerg and Rowbotham.
