Beverleys’ final game of the season was always going to be a difficult task, playing at a ground where they had never won in the past.
With a strong wind behind them Morley came out of the blocks on fire, quickly exposing Beverleys’ inability, as in previous weeks, to cope against strong running backs. It took less than 5 minutes for the home team to create gaps and they opened their account with a try from full back Luke Stevenson and soon added another from centre Hall.
Beverley did themselves have a fair amount of possession, with their forwards once again more than holding their own, particularly in the line out where they only lost one of their own throws all afternoon. With Junior Tupai pulling the strings at fly half the visitors began to look enterprising with the ball in hand and strong running from Sam Atiola and Stuart Nel, drove Beverley into their opponents half but whenever they lost possession they were pushed back by long raking kicks from the home stand off Mark Chester.
Morley used this territorial advantage well and despite some desperate defence, in particular from young Jake Marin who had another fine game, they added to their points tally with tries from Funnell and Hall with only 20 minutes on the clock.
Beverley to their credit rallied taking the game more and more into Morleys’ half and were duly awarded a penalty try after repeated infringement at a 5m scrum. The visitors looked as though they might reach half time with the score at 26 -7 but 2 tries in the final 2 minutes of the half from Stevenson and Bell both converted by Stevenson, who had an excellent kicking game all afternoon, put the home team well and truly in command.
Starting the second half 40 points to 7 down another rout seemed on the cards but Beverley responded well. The forwards with Starbuck, McKay and Shaw prominent won plenty of ball for veteran scrum half Ian Archibald to either set the backs running or to push Morley back with some fine kicking. Beverley’s cause was not helped by 2 yellow cards which meant that the played half of the rest of the game with 14 men. During this time Morley added 2 further converted tries. When back at fully strength Beverley added a try of their own from winger Phil Wood, following several excellent phases of play.
The game and the season finished on an unsavoury note when an alleged high tackle from Beverleys’ Craig Hancock led to several Morley players piling in in retaliation. When the resulting fracas calmed down it was a little surprising that Hancock was the only one to be shown a red card.
It has been a very difficult season for Beverley but the squad needs to be applauded for never giving up. There have been some excellent contributions from veteran players and promising performances from younger players. So Beverley must look forward to a summer of rebuilding and to next season in North East 1, which will include several local derbies.
Final Score: Morley RUFC 51 Beverley RUFC 12 | Reported by Brian Evison
