Beverley RUFC 2nds travelled to Bridlington hoping to avenge a heavy defeat the last time the two sides met. Despite the late loss of influential back rower Martin Shaw to an early morning groin injury and another couple of no shows from the selected squad the Beavers had a much stronger team than their previous visit to Dukes Park in November and made strong start after a somewhat lacklustre warm up.
Some good forward play was providing steady ball for the backs but often this was delayed in the ruck, meaning the backs space was soon cut down by an aggressive Bridlington back line. After 10 minutes of fairly even play Bridlington broke blind, some clever passing and good support play resulted in the first score of the afternoon, too far out for the conversion.
Soon after and an almost identical piece of play brought Bridlington their second score after Beverley RUFC failed to defend the short side again, despite the best efforts of stand in skipper Kristian Snellings last gasp cover tackle. In fact Snelling was one of only a handful of Beavers players who up to this point showed the required energy, desire and willingness to compete.
Beverley RUFC did however come back into the game a little and from a cleanly won line out on the half way fly half Sherwood threw a long wide pass to James Graham who fed full back Jamie Gill at pace before winger Josh Roe took the ball into the Bridlington 22 and might have scored if he had backed himself, however a neat kick through was only just cut out by the covering defence and the chance was lost. From the resulting lineout the Beavers drove towards the line but were held out by the home sides defence and turn over ball was cleared up field.
Bridlington then took play into the Beverley RUFC 22 on a couple of occasions and the Beavers inability to defend the short side almost cost them dear again only for a poor pass from the Bridlington centre bringing an end to the move. However this was short lived as just before half time Bridlington scored their third try after again breaking blind and finally scoring from a ruck five metres out again with Beverley RUFC’s defence nowhere to be seen.
A couple of changes at half time saw full back Gill move up to scrum half and his added urgency seemed to have the desired effect on the side.Finally Beverley RUFC started to be more aggressive in both defence and attack and moved play into the Bridlington 22 where after a concerted period of pressure fly half Sherwood bounced off the would be tacklers and flew over the line like a heavily pregnant swan!!!
In fact several team mates rushed to his aid with concerns about potential injuries to his lungs after such a landing. Gladly he was fine and Gill duly added the extras.Beverley RUFC suddenly found a belief that had been missing all afternoon and took the game to the home side only for a couple of breaks out of defence by Bridlington almost resulting in another score.
And it was Beverley RUFC achilles heel all afternoon, their short side defence, that finally proved their undoing again as Bridlington cut loose and scored another converted try for the final points of the afternoon and a 24-7 victory.
Beverley RUFC can take some positives from the game. When they do attack through the backs they look dangerous and a little more belief in their ability would surely bring them more scores. Good performances from Josh and Ollie Roe, Kristian Snelling, Jamie Gill, the returning Robert Todd and a Man of the Match performance from James Graham for both his attacking prowess and aggressive defence were encouraging, but yet again their defence, particularly down the blind side let them down at times, which is all the more disappointing given its something they have worked on in training.