This was very much a game of two halves, in the first Beverley Braves under 14s made too many errors and invited Cottingham Tigers into their half far too often and were lucky not to be more than 4-12 down at half-time. Cutting out the errors in the second half saw them pile on 28 points without reply to run out 32-18 winners.
Cottingham were 6 up on only the second set of the game before Beverley had touched the ball, save for a knock on from an attacking Cottingham kick which gifted that second set. This was pretty much the story of the whole half as error after error resulted in the Braves putting in a huge tackling stint.
To the fore were George Bennett-Teare, Will Swainston, Ethan Rowbotham and Ollie Loney whose hard work in defence went a long way to keeping the Tigers to just one more try. There were very few highlights in the first half for the Braves, but Ben Hodder’s safe hands at full back were once again noticeable whilst Harry Vorwerg chased back well to stop a certain try. On the opposite wing, Tom Cohen also made some crucial tackles. With seconds to go in the half a Cottingham kick went dead in goal and quick thinking from William Wallis kept Beverley in the game. A quick tap on the 20 and it was a footrace to the Tigers line for a score on the left. 4-12 at half-time.
In the second half, Beverley started poorly conceding an early try to go 4-18 down, but this Beverley side are made of stern stuff, and their team spirit is second to none. After a penalty for a head high tackle Beverley made good progress up field on back of some great forward drives, particularly from Tom Baker and great distribution from acting half back from Jack Turner. The ball came out to Kai Johnson, who used all his power to force his way over – he converted his own try, and Beverley began to believe they could turn this game around.
On attack again Henry Hughes, once again standing in at half-back after Marcus Walker hobbled off early in the first half with a knee injury, feigned to kick on the sixth before stepping over to score on the left.
Johnson’s conversion making it 16-18. Rugby League is a game of momentum, and it was certainly with Beverley when Vorwerg fielded the Cottingham kick off and raced through the approaching Tigers defence to score at the other end of the field. Turner’s conversion and Beverley had the lead for the first time.
Beverley were now really working hard for each other. William Kirkup defended well to prevent a Cottingham core on the Braves right whilst Archie Murdoch put in so many crucial tackles to stop a Cottingham team desperately trying to get a foothold back in the game. However, with such great forward momentum, scrum half Lewis Egan had the space to cause Cottingham problems every time he had the ball despite the added responsibility he took on with the loss of his usual half back partner.
On the back of this good work, Hughes made a great break down the right before feeding the supporting Wallis to score his second. Turner’s conversion made it 28-18 a decent points cushion. Continued hard work in defence on the left from Ryan Deane kept the Tigers at bay, and it was left to Wallis to take Hughes pass to crash over and complete the scoring.
This performance was based on strong work in the forwards. Both in attack and defence and Baker and Johnson received the joint man of the match award.
