Old Otliensians 23, Wakefield Cougars 13

Old Otliensians entertained Wakefield Cougars last Saturday in another league encounter, desperately looking for points to boost their tally in Yorkshire Division Four.

Otliensians were able to field a much stronger pack than in recent weeks, with experienced players Richard Smith, Tony Twist and Richard Crossley returning to the fold.

These players along with debutant scrum -half Matty Birch provided an excellent platform for the Chaffers Field side.

However, Wakefield Cougars had the better of the early encounters leading the first half 13-8 with both sides scouring a try a piece, with the Otliensians' second rower Richard Smith crashing over taking two opponents with him.

The second-half saw the home side begin to dominate possession with Dave Roberts and Brett Tenniswood winning excellent line-out ball.

This allowed right winger Jonathon Woods to finish off some excellent handling by the Otliensian backs with a try in the right hand cover.

The Old Otliensians scrummaging was particularly impressive with Richard Paley driving his front row into the heart of the opposition; so much so a pushover try seemed a certain outcome when Otliensians were awarded a scrum tenmetres out.

The Cougars collapsed it giving the referee no option but to award a penalty try under the posts.

The last ten minutes saw Wakefield throw everything at the home side putting the Otliensians' defence under enormous pressure.

However, outstanding tackling thwarted surge after surge from the Cougars, allowing Otliensians to record a second league victory with an outstanding committed display.

Otley B 69, Otliensians A 5

In only their second game of the season Otliensians seconds fielded an inexperienced XV against a Viscounts XV who knew each other very well.

Whilst able to contain the Otley pack for long periods, thanks to the hard work of Chris Myers among others, Otliensians were outpaced and out thought in the backs.

In this hard-fought derby the final score did not do justice to the effort put in by Otliensians. In the first quarter there was nothing in it with the Otliensians' pack more than holding their own but once the Tongans started to spread the ball they had too much pace on the wings and Phil Ayres and Craig Jackson both recorded hat-tricks.

It was 28-0 at half-time with Tony Stott converting all four tries and strong defence kept Otliensians out in a period of pressure.

In the second-half the pace of the game told and there were further tries from Adrian Keeler (2), Martin Keeler, James Poostie and Tony Stott who added three conversions. Otliensians, to their credit, never gave up and were rewarded with a try from prop Chris Myers when their pack drove over following strong pressure on the Tongans' line.

For Otliensians skipper Peter Tempest and Tony Collins set a fine example with good tackling and Adam McCartney showed promise at stand-off.

The game was played in an excellent spirit, well controlled by Richard Simpson, who took the whistle when the referee cancelled.