Otley................29

MANCHESTER...14

AN almost full-strength Otley side comfortably defeated a mixed Manchester team on a sunny but cold afternoon at Cross Green on Saturday.

Had Manchester fielded a full-strength side then Otley would have had an indication as to what they could expect if they gain promotion from Jewson League Division One to Division Two of the national league.

According to Manchester's coach they were understrength.

Nevertheless Manchester fielded a good side and Otley, although at times lapsed with some of their passing and backing up, they did show plenty of enterprise and their forwards used their muscle in the loose mauls and rucks. They also, at times, outpushed the big Manchester pack.

One disappointment was that the ball was not given out enough to their two enterprising wingers, Simon Smith and Mark Kirkby. They were not given much running time and had they received the ball a little more then Manchester could have been in more trouble.

Otley won some good line-out ball from locks Ian Carroll and Paul Williams, who had come in for Peter Curtis, who was unavailable. The pair were often prominent in the loose.

Skipper Phil Griffin, No 8 Jonathan Burke, flanker Lafael Filipo, along with veteran prop Steve Rice, were always in the thick of things. Otley fielded a different half-back pair in scrum-half Gary Cassidy, an Otley player who is serving with the army and fly-half Ian Shuttleworth. Both had good games.

Within five minutes of the match being started Manchester took the lead with a try by No 8 Ian Clarke, which was converted by fly-half Andy Kahn, to give the visitors confidence and a 0-7 lead.

Clarke's try was a good one. He raced forward with the ball and then chipped it over an advancing Otley player to re-gather and score his try.

This put heart into Manchester but Otley managed to sustain the pressure and in the 14th minute, Lafael Filipo, their powerful Samoan flanker, went over for a try in the left corner following Otley pressure. Shuttleworth just failed to add the goal points with a low kick.

Shuttleworth made a break and lock Ian Carroll took the ball on and handed out to skipper Phil Griffin, who went over for a 20th minute try which was converted by Shuttleworth to give Otley a 12-7 lead, a lead they never lost.

Eleven minutes later Gary Cassidy picked up a loose ball, scythed through the Manchester defence to score a well executed try (31 mins) under the posts which made Shuttleworth's conversion kick an easy one, which made Shuttleworth's conversion kick an easy one.

Otley now led 19-7. Two minutes later Shuttleworth made a strong run into Manchester territory but lacked support when he was tackled.

The referee had to have words with Manchester hooker Mike Armstrong and Otley's lock Paul Williams, following a misunderstanding which necessitated Williams having to have on-field treatment.

Steve Rice was replaced by Dean Hardcastle in the third minute of first-half injury time.

On resuming Otley missed a golden opportunity to increase their lead. Griffin fed No 8 Burke, who made good ground and then it seemed he did not have the confidence or pace to carry him to the line.

He decided to pass the ball but it went astray. However, he redeemed himself by scoring a try from a loose maul in the 43rd minute to give Otley a 24-7 lead.

Then in the 50th minute right-winger Simon Smith scored an easy try, which was not converted, to increase Otley's lead to 29-7.

Manchester made the score more respectable from their point of view in the 80th minute when prop Rob Bieniasz, went over for a try which was converted by Steve Swindells, their leading goal scorer, who had come on as a replacement.

l Otley played well enough to be able to go into their next league match at Preston Grasshoppers, on Saturday, with plenty of confidence.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.