Otley 32

London Welsh 9

OTLEY put once-mighty London Welsh in their place at Cross Green.

The exiles arrived in confident mood after winning all three away games, losing only their home fixtures to Rotherham and Worcester, and expecting to expunge their defeat at Otley last season.

But Peter Clegg's well-motivated side were in no mood to allow them to achieve that objective.

The home front five, with young prop Adam Pogson making a rare start and being made Man-of-the-Match, were comfortably in charge in the set pieces.

They skewed the scrum on their opponents put in to deprive them of clean ball, giving the back row time to get amongst the Welsh backs.

The visitors had a big say in this hugely entertaining game but the home defence was up to everything thrown at them.

Ian Shuttleworth, was rock steady at full back, and his tackle on Andy Lee when the fly-half was put clear, was breathtaking, whilst his forays into attack were ever threatening.

Lee has under age caps for England at rugby, soccer and cricket.

Otley had first use of the wind, but it was a deep kick from Lee that turned their defence, and a penalty was conceded which put the Exiles three points up in the second minute.

For the next ten minutes they had the upperhand until a kick from Matt Walker from his 22 was well followed up and a knock-on won a scrum from which Phil Greaves was almost over.

It was left to Simon Binns, showing deft footwork, to slip over and then convert.

He added a couple of penalties as Otley began to turn the screw and centre Chris Malherbe just beat the half-time whistle to stride through a shadowy defence to cross in the left corner.

Welsh soon indicated that they would be using the wind to pin Otley in their 22 but all they could manage in the first 11 minutes were two more penalties from Lee.

The game was virtually over when Shuttleworth broke away.

He moved the ball on when tackled, and after the forwards failed to drive over, the ball was moved wide and Peter Curtis was on hand when Walker was pulled down to slip a pass to Greaves, who stretched out to score.

The home defence was severely tested but their defensive formations were excellent.

With just five minutes remaining, Mark Kirkby, on for Simon Smith, moved infield to snap up a dropped Welsh pass and, breaking the grasp of two would-be tacklers, outstripped the defence to go in under the posts.

He thus gained Otley a bonus point and gave Binns an easy conversion.

l Otley make their entry into the RFU Senior Cup on Saturday, the third round, when they entertain National League One newcomers Bracknell, with kick-off at 3pm.