You couldn’t ask for much better than this. Beverley RUFC have played some tremendous rugby in the course of this season but not much that has surpassed this for quality. It was not so much the number of tries they scored but the sheer quality of them that was so impressive. Wheatley were simply swept away. Their only consolation was that probably no other side in the league would have fared any better. Beverley RUFC returned to Beaver Park in triumph and delight after sealing the league title at Keighley. It was almost a surprise that Head Coach, Anthony Posa, did not arrive at the ground riding on an ass with palms being strewn in his way. When they took the field the team received a rousing ovation and they responded by producing a riot of running rugby. It was a tough game with numerous injury stoppages but played in a good spirit none the less.
Within seven minutes they had run in two converted tries by Lee Birch and Sam Atiola. Wheatley could hardly have known what had hit them. After that Beverley RUFC never really allowed them to get going. Ben Miller did kick a penalty when Beverley RUFC were penalised for crossing but otherwise they could hardly get a sniff of the Beverley RUFC line. A break by the outstanding David Worrall sent Birch over for his second try and a burst through the middle by Tomasi Tanumi brought a second for Sam Atiola. Only twenty minutes gone and Beverley RUFC had already pocketed a four try bonus point.
Wheatley rallied as the half progressed and Gareth Burns drilled his way over from a penalty line-out. The big number eight is a powerful and influential figure for Wheatley. On another day he might have had a major impact but here he was superbly kept in check by the outstanding tackling of Joe Picketts Beverley RUFC’s openside flanker. The biggest man on the field constantly brought to earth by the smallest.
Direct from the restart kick Worrall and Nathan Sharpe broke through the Wheatley defence and Chris Infield took a clever inside pass to cross for a fifth Beverley RUFC try. 33-8 at halftime and realistically there was no way back for Wheatley. Nevertheless they upped their game at the start of the second half and Beverley RUFC for long spells were penned in their own half and mostly in their 22. Burns went over from a catch and drive near the home line for a second Wheatley try but otherwise the Beverley RUFC defence held firm. Wheatley could make little of the numerous promptings of David Scully, their much travelled and experienced fly half.
Even in their own 22 you always felt that Beverley RUFC might easily break away and score. In the end they did. A Wheatley attack near the Beverley RUFC line somehow ended with the ball in Sam Atiola’s hands and the winger sprinted the full length of the field for a fine solo try. Despite Wheatley’s second half pressure it was 40-13 and Beverley RUFC were continuing to romp away with it. The loss of Burns with what looked like concussion and Miller, who was yellow carded for a dangerous tackle, was a double setback for Wheatley. But it had little effect on the pattern of play.
Beverley RUFC increasingly reasserted themselves and Tanumi sprinted over fifty metres, weaving this way and that through the Wheatley defence, for what was probably the outstanding individual try of the day. Two more tries by Birch were not far behind in quality and Junior Tupai then added one in the corner for Beverley RUFC’s tenth. With almost the last action of the match Tanumi selflessly put Sharpe over to take Beverley RUFC beyond the seventy point mark. Of the eleven tries scored Phil Duboulay missed only three conversions. Near the end Scully was red carded for harassing the referee but by then it hardly mattered. Of most concern to Beverley RUFC perhaps was the afternoon’s shattering of two windows in the gardens of adjacent properties.
Final Score : Beverley RUFC 71 Wheatley Hills 13 | Report by John Nursey
[nggallery id=2760]
