After Cottingham Tigers brought Beverley Braves winning run to an end in July it would be expected that this game just a few weeks later would be similarly competitive, however, the Braves were in no mood to taste defeat again and produced a superb all round display to crush the under strength Tigers.
Beverley have been slow starters this season but today was different, in their first set of six Tom Baker made a great break through the middle, passed on to the supporting William Wallis, who put his wing partner Harry Vorwerg in at the corner with barely a minute on the clock.
The next fifteen minutes were very different. However, as the Tigers had several repeat sets in the Beverley half but were unable to unlock the home defence. At the fore were Ollie Gresswell, Will Swainston and hooker Ethan Rowbotham all of whom put in a great tackling stint.
That defensive effort laid the foundations for what was to come with Lewis Egan superbly providing the money ball for Kai Johnson, who covered the 20 metres to the try line despite the attentions of several defenders. Marcus Walker added the extras, and it was 10nil.
Vorwerg fielded the ball from the kick off and made Cottingham pay for a poor chase stepping a couple of defenders before racing under the sticks, with Walker’s goal, it was suddenly 16nil, 22 nil once Hughes broke down the left three minutes later passing on to the supporting Archie Murdoch, who never needs a second chance in those situations, despite scoring wide out Walker added the extras and that’s how it stayed until half-time.
The second half started in a similar vein after Wallis’ tackle dislodged the ball from a Cottingham player from the resulting scrum Swainston picked up from the base of the scrum passing to Wallis on the short side who raced through to score. Jack Turner was now on the field from the bench, and he made no mistake with the conversion. Two minutes later, he was converting from the same position after Vorwerg made the break and cheekily popped the ball over the top to the supporting Wallis to score from 50 metres out. 34nil. Cottingham were a little shell shocked at this point but credit to them as kept on battling and scored a try to make it 34-4.
Two minutes later, they were on the attack again putting up a huge bomb, superbly taken by Walker at full back, he gained a further 10 metres, got a quick play the ball allowing Vorwerg to take the ball and race 60 metres to complete his hat-trick, Turner’s goal making it 40-4. The Braves were showing some delightful attacking play now, Ryan Deane brought the ball up well from the kick off and on the back of this go forward Walker’s long pass found Wallis on the right who in turn found wing Tom Cohen, who was dragged down two metres short, Gresswell was on hand and his quick ball from acting half-back allowed Walker the chance to access his options and switch the ball back to Wallis, who had the simple task of placing the ball down over the line for his hat-trick.
Beverley continued to defend well, George Bennett-Teare putting in some big hits ably supported by Olly Loney and Egan, who once again knocked down lads twice his size with ease. Murdoch rubbed salt in the Cottingham wounds when after Tigers won the scrum. He stole the ball one on one to score from 30 metres out, Walker converting to bring up the 50.
Tigers found a little respite scoring under the sticks with a charge from short range exposing the Beverley defence and with the conversion it was 50-10. This just spurred on the Braves further, Cohen crashing over from acting half-back, Wallis getting another and finally Bennett-Teare putting the icing on the cake with the final try, converted by Turner to make the final score 64-10.
Gresswell and Rowbotham men of the match in recognition of their solid defensive displays.
