Beverley Braves under 14s played Hull Victoria Titans for the fourth time this season and each time the hosts have shown significant improvements with this latest game coming on the back of their first victory of the season in the previous week.
Beverley found it tough going in the first half despite getting their first try from a scrum in the Titans half with William Wallis timing his pass well to put Harry Vorwerg in at the corner.
It stayed at nil 4 for some time with Victoria testing Beverley well but with William Kirkup having a great game at full back taking everything kicked at him and then gaining good yards, they were not going to find a way through.
Kirkup’s efforts were supported by a strong defensive effort from Will Swainston, Ollie Loney and Ethan Rowbotham. Going forwards Tom Baker and George Bennett-Teare had strong games repeatedly punching holes in the Victoria defence and it was on the back of such great work than Lewis Egan found the perfect pass to send Archie Murdoch racing through a gap to score under the sticks. Jack Turner’s conversion making it
nil- 10. Victoria continued to battle though and it was some time before Will Wallis found the space to crash over out wide on the right and continue his record of having scored in every game of 2016. Turner’s excellent touchline conversion put the icing on the cake.
Nil-16 was how it stayed until half-time, and it was time for some changes, stand-off Marcus Walker, who had been well wrapped up by the Titans defence took a breather, Henry Hughes coming on. The reshuffle worked well, and it wasn’t long before Bennett-Teare was crashing over after fast hands.
Six minutes later and Wallis was once again putting Vorwerg in at the corner. From the resulting kick off Olllie Gresswell took the ball well and gained good yards, a feature of his game that has developed noticeably this year.
Rowbotham’s distribution from acting half back and tackling was noticeable in the second half as the Titans defended well and pushed for the next score. Victoria pushed the ball out to the wings as much as they could a fact underlined by Tom Cohen and Vorwerg’s high tackle count, Cohen pulling off a great tackle to wrap up man and ball when the Titans had a three on one overlap.
With Egan probing for the next score, he found Baker, who crashed over for the try. Hughes made a great break that deserved more, but the Titans defence held firm and where then pushing for a try and poacher supreme Murdoch saw his opportunity to intercept and given a clear run to the line there was going to be no other outcome. Walker’s conversion made it nil-34.
Men of the match Kirkup and Bennett-Teare.
