Wharfedale 39, Henley Hawks 24

This was Wharfedale’s fifth straight SSE National League One victory and their fifth in six matches at The Avenue this season.

They also garnered another five league points, securing the bonus point for four tries as early as the 35th minute.

The Greens’ win also consolidated their fifth place in the table but there was still a tinge of regret at the final scoreline.

Having established a 39-14 lead with a Tom Barrett penalty in the 69th minute, the flagging Dalesmen then conceded the final ten points of what had largely been an opportunist home performance, the hosts often succeeding against the flow of possession and territory.

“I would give us six and a half out of ten,” said Wharfedale’s coach John Feeley.

“The lads are disappointed in the changing room, and that shows you how far we have come as a team.

“With limited possession, we were clinical in the first half, which was pleasing, but as far as giving too many penalties away, I will have to look at the video.

“We haven’t been an ill-disciplined team but the amount of defending we had to do in the first half up the slope cost us in the last ten minutes. Credit to Henley - they kept going right until the end.”

On a mild November afternoon, Wharfedale certainly set out like a team on a mission, scoring with their first attack in the fourth minute when they switched play from right to left, giving left winger Josh Prell the chance to ghost over.

Tom Barrett converted, and the fly half soon added a penalty to make it 10-0 after ten minutes.

Barrett’s quick thinking in taking a tap penalty near his 22 after 17 minutes caught Henley napping and, although he didn’t score after twice hacking ahead, the fly half did set up field position.

Both teams were dispossessed in the ensuing passage of play before prop Jake Armstrong’s inside pass put Barrett in for the Greens’ second try.

Henley’s fly half James Comber kept them in it by landing three penalties in 11 minutes but they let in their third try in between times when great work by home scrum half Philip Woodhead and flanker Aaron Myers led to right winger Scott Jordan and his twinkling toes to outfox the Hawks defence.

Barrett’s conversion made it 22-6 and shell-shocked Henley, who had the lion’s share of possession and territory, found themselves 29-9 behind at the interval when the potent Prell crossed again in the 34th minute, Barrett once more improving the try.

The pleasantly surprised home fans, who had seen full back Christian Georgiou sin-binned in the 37th minute for persistent technical team offences, waited for the Dalesmen to be as incisive in the second half.

And although centre Joe Donkin got a breakaway try on the hour, Barrett converting and later adding a penalty, the dam never really broke, and the Greens ended the match on the back foot by shipping in three of the last four tries.

Full back and skipper Martin Nutt’s score in the 65th minute was followed by efforts from scrum half Mark Bruce and former Otley winger Xavier Andre, none of which were converted to leave Wharfedale wondering what might have been on an afternoon when they lost prop Joe Altham to injury as early as the 27th minute.