Brodleians 10 - 43 Rishworthians

Local rivals serve up great game of rugby

Match Report Sunday 29th January - Friendly

Rishworthians u15s came out tops in the local derby at Brodleians. The last two meetings had gone to the home side on each occasion and with many players playing against school friends the match was both keenly anticipated, and fiercely contested. Rishworthians captain Binns, won the toss and chose to play uphill in the first half, knowing that the home side would try and take full advantage in the first period.

The game started well for Rishworthians, despite the slope they powered up field driving the Brods backwards. In previous meetings the Brodlieans had the edge in the loose but Rishworthians have dramatically improved this area, and counter rucked superbly in the opening exchanges. The referee was aware of how much both sides wanted to win and did an excellent job of keeping a lid on the bubbling tension by taking a tough line on any infringements he saw, and it was from a penalty that Brodlieans broke the deadlock. Catching the Rishworthians napping they took a quick penalty and moved the ball downfield, seconds later their danger men were in clear space, and heading for the opening score, Brods couldn’t convert, so took a five nil lead.

Rishworthians came back strongly bolstered by some fresh legs from the bench they powered up the field, forwards making the hard yards but the backs running with pace when the opportunity arose. Bullough took a quick tap and powered towards the line, Brods defence couldn’t keep him from crossing but managed to keep him off the ground, no try. From the resulting scrum Bullough drove again taking the ball to within inches of the line, Rish successfully secured the second phase and Gledhill from the back of the ruck, glanced up, picked his spot, and exploded over the line to level the scores.

The opening half was a fantastic period of play, both sides throwing everything at the game, Rishworthians forward play was immense, powerful driving and strong tackling started to take its toll on the home side, but when Brods managed to get the ball to their backs, they always looked dangerous. It was Brods who scored next, the fly half jinking into space and racing for the line to put his team five points up.

Some of the Rishworthians were beginning to doubt their chances but a rallying talk under the posts fired them up again, and they struck right back, Riley breaking free from his opposite number, and rounding the full back to score under the posts. A Fletcher-Tennant conversion put the visitors into a two point lead which lasted until halftime, a superb effort considering the slope on the pitch is reckoned to be worth 14 points.

Half time Brodleians 10 - 12 Rishworthians

In the second half Brods were without their influential number ten, whilst Rishworthians brought on fresh legs, and the match was only going one way. Binns opened the second half scoring, picking up a loose ball from an untidy scrum he was gone before the Brods back row could react, he burst past an attempted tackle from the back line and sprinted the remaining 30 meters to score against his former club.

Rishworthians pressed on, seeing the fullback out of position Fletcher-Tennant placed an astute kick behind the Brods defence, it bobbled away down the hill and Brods looked favourite to safely ground it for a twenty-two kick, but rugby balls do funny things and when it bobbled sideways and hit the post the chance was still alive. Fletcher-Tennant was first to react, stretching out underneath the defender to score.

The Rishworthian backs were running with freedom now but Brods stuck to the task, when Radcliffe set up a ruck near the line Rishworthians were queuing up on the blind side to score, Davis picked out Bullough who is always dependable from short range. He didn’t disappoint, and drove hard for the score to top his superb performance.

Crosland added to the try count with his first score for Rishworthians, a fine finish cutting outside his wingman to score near the corner flag, but Rishworthians were not finished scoring. Barron found some space on the left wing and looked to go for the corner, a huge covering tackle from the Brods number eight, brought him to ground, and the support arrived a second too late for the offload. The referee awarded a scrum to the defence and the chance looked to have gone begging, but Rishworthians forwards were now dominant and when Hill stole the scrum, they zipped it down the backline. Ratcliffe took a difficult catch on the wing which halted his forward momentum, but he popped it back inside to Fletcher-Tennant, who darted over for the try.

With Fletcher –Tennant slotting three second half conversions the final score was 43 – 10 to Rishworthians. It’s tempting to say the score flattered Rishworthians, and if Brods had not been unlucky to lose key players, the game would undoubtedly have been tighter, but today Rishworthians were better in most aspects of the game, and particularly up front where tight five were immense and the back row dominated the game both in attack and defence, counter-rucking, jackling for the ball and, most importantly, stopping Brods distribution by closing down the half-backs. So Rishworthians deserved the win, a great performance from both sides to produce a great game.

Man of match G Binns

Brodleians website

Squad
	1. K Jamieson	2. J Hill	3. J Radcliffe
6. H Keighley-Payne				7. G Binns T
	4. L Vidler		5. W Frost
		8. R Bullough T
9. A Greenwood-Macdonald
	10. J Storey
		12. I Riley T
			13. S Moore
11. J Brenchley				14. H Thornton
		15. S Fletcher-Tennant T2,C4
Subs
Z Barron J Gledhill T	C Sparkes O Crossland T	A Ratcliffe A Pooloogadoo	B Davies L Dawant	K Baxter A Halliday