Match Report: Wharfedale 34-28 Tynedale

John Clark has been reporting for the Yorkshire Times, part of the p.ublished group of online newspapers, on his local club, Wharfedale RUFC.

A cracking match as always between the Greens and our great rivals Tynedale from Northumberland. Last year, although we won both matches, the scores were so close and today’s match was similarly touch and go.

That Wharfedale could be 17-0 up after 9 minutes having scored three great tries must be some sort of record, but equally amazing was the fact that by half time the scores were level at 22-22 and that one visiting player, namely winger Will Roberts, had scored all three tries. In addition to this all the rest of the points were added by their specialist kicker and centre threequarter Cameron Grant.

To fill in the details, after one minute Joe Fawcett charged down an attempted clearance to score, after 4 minutes Harry Bullough glided over and after 9 minutes Ben Patchett finished off a surge by the forwards to touch down to the right of the posts. Unfortunately the otherwise immaculate Sam Gaudie only kicked one conversion. The score was therefore 17-0.

When Tynedale clicked into gear after 18 minutes they scored through their outstanding winger Will Roberts. Cameron Grant kicked the conversion to make the score 17-7. Grant then converted a penalty.

Roberts scored two more tries on 30 and 39 minutes, one of which was converted. Interspersed with these two tries was one for Wharfedale by Sam Gaudie which again went unconverted, on this occasion a narrow miss by Ryan Hodgson. This made the score 22-22 at half time, an incredible fight back from the visitors.

Playing uphill with the wind Wharfedale knew that if they used it sensibly they were definitely in with a shout. Sure enough, Joe Fawcett scored on 47 minutes and notched his hat trick with 20 minutes to go. This try was converted emphatically by Omari Kaup-Samuels.

After another frenetic period with both sides looking dangerous in turn, there were no further scores. Our coach felt that the forwards had performed exceptionally well and that prop Sam Dickinson deserved the man of the match award. It could easily have been Joe Fawcett for the second home match running and after Sam Gaudie had to leave the field half way through the match Omari Kaup-Samuels played a blinder.

A maximum 15 points from our first three matches is more than we could have hoped for, but the injury count and absences abroad will make the next few matches very testing.