Otley's poor record in Powergen Cup goes on

Otley's poor record in the Powergen Cup continued on Saturday when they were defeated by Bristol Shoguns at Cross Green.

Otley were forced to make changes to their backline with the absence of Simon Binns and Neil Law. This undoubtedly disrupted the balance of a side which had operated so successfully in the opening games of the campaign.

Otley had the luxury of having Paul Williams recovered from a broken nose; Ed Thorpe and new boy making his first appearance since joining from Gloucester and now fully fit, back row Nick Southern; and making his debut on the left wing, Richard Butler, fresh from Aspatria.

The re-organisation failed to gel and their usually watertight defence, six tries conceded in six games so far, was found wanting and fully exposed when James Bailey, in an orthodox training ground move, twice came in from his wing to find an enormous gap in midfield, racing in untouched.

Otley's pack again dominated their opponents but they were unable to capitalise on their superiority as errors came at key moments.

Bristol opened the scoring after ten minutes when centre Sam Cox found a gap to go over. Fly-half Danny Gray converted and the Shoguns led 7-0.

Otley responded almost immediately when hooker Mark Luffman was driven over in the corner following good work by the forwards but Ian Shuttleworth was unable to add the conversion.

Bristol stretched the lead to 10-5 when full-back Michael Hook landed a drop goal from under the posts to conclude the first half scoring.

Just after the re-start Bailey scored his first try when Gray put the ball behind his two centres for the on-rushing winger to gather and arc round the Otley defence. Gray added the conversion from in front of the posts and Bristol were 17-5 ahead.

Gray added a penalty soon after to effectively kill the tie off and then Bailey raced in for his second try which was also converted by Gray.

Otley made a series of substitutions with back-rowers Ed Thorpe and debutant Nick Southern making in-roads into the Shoguns defence.

Otley finally scored in the closing stages when Shuttleworth made a half break before slipping the ball to Whatmuff who scored the try. In the end Bristol fully deserved their win.