Bramley Phoenix P 22

Otliensians 13

OTLIENSIANS travelled in high hopes to Bramley on Saturday following their victory over Heath the previous week and having beaten Bramley 15-0 in October.

Once again they were subjected to team changes, only three of the forwards remaining from the previous week's victory. The crucial half-back pairing was also affected by the unavailability of Ian Chaplin who was replaced by Steve Foster.

This was the first time this season that Swann and Foster had been paired and it was to prove crucial. Both are individually excellent players with Swann's defensive work in particular in recent weeks being decisive at times. However, on Saturday he could not find Foster with his pass and some hard-earned possession by the forwards often went awry. Besides reducing the opportunities for Otliensians' backs to get away, directly led to one of Bramley's tries.

Although Bramley opened like a train that belied their position at the foot of the league. This week Otliensians did not concede an early score and indeed weathered the storm. This was also despite an early injury to Michael Wilson causing Darren Hardie to replace him at second row for the sixth forward change from the previous week's formation.

In fact it was Otliensians who almost opened the scoring with a penalty from Dave Smith which fell inches short under the bar from a good distance out.

Otliensians were now getting on top, particularly in the forwards, although there was some strong running in the backs, particularly from Chris Bawden.

It was Bramley who put the first points on the board after 15 minutes with a goods passing movement from half-way catching Otliensians' defence off guard and scoring under the posts for an easy conversion.

Following this setback, Otliensians returned to tbe attack and camped for 80 per cent of the rest of the half in Bramley territory.

A further 15 minutes after the first score they scored their second try, this being the one caused by a lack of cohesion at half-back. Bramley pounced on a loose ball to kick through for a touchdown under the posts and another simple conversion.

Shortly before half-time Otliensians scored a consolation penalty via Smith to make it 14-3 at the break.

Otliensians knew they did not deserve to be 11 points behind and although going three further poinst adrift to a penalty shortly after the re-start they got their just reward when Bawden made an incisive break in the centre and Tony Collins finished off with a strong run. The score remained at 17-8 for 20 minutes with some good defensive work on both sides cancelling each other out. One particular tackle by Collins savied a certain try.

After half an hour Bramley's right winger seemed to put the game out of reach with a try. Shortly before time Matt Tenniswood with some quick thinking made an opportunist interception in his own half and with great determination, which was good to see, just managed to outstrip the cover by a matter of feet to touchdown in the corner, the difficult conversion failing.

This brought the final score to 22-13. This was disappointing for Otliensians against bottom of the table Bramley although the Worralls has never been an easy hunting ground. The changed pack acquitted themselves wlll working hard throughout and getting a reasonable amount of ball in tight and loose , if sometimes a little slowly.

Although the line-outs did not always go according to plan Otliensians did get their fair share of possession in this phase.

Often they robbed the opposition ball with Marcus Drake doing some sterling jumping.

l On Saturday Otliensians play the postponed Yorkshire Shield game at home to Sheffield Tigers, kick-off 2.15 pm. With the return of one or two players Otliensians are looking forward to progressing to the next round in what should be an exciting fixture.

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