REPORT BY: JOHN CLARK
ON a glorious Saturday, March afternoon, Wharfedale were at their majestic best for nearly all of the match on this occasion.
Their willingness to feed the ball wide and keep the attacking momentum flowing ensured a great afternoon of rugby.
Apart from a few relieving kicks when under pressure, the ball was kept in hand much to the pleasure of those watching. The contrast between Dale and their visitors, Sheffield, was very noticeable. The away side opted to pick and drive with their huge pack throughout the contest, whereas Wharfedale spread it wide, zipping the ball through a multitude of hands in a slick manner.
Impressive no8 Ryan Burrows opened the scoring for Sheffield within just four minutes after fine work by all his pack; the try converted by Elliot Fisher.
Wharfedale levelled the scoring within the opening ten minutes through the evergreen Luke Armstrong, after some high quality combined play. Rob Davidson added the extras.
The Greens continued to show impressive form, relishing their role as underdogs as they had done in the narrow defeat by Leeds. Davidson kicked a penalty to give his side the lead 10-7.
Wharfedale then applied intense pressure with a definite territorial advantage. It was winger Bradley Viner who capitalised on this after a flowing move by his backs going right. Davidson narrowly failed to add the conversion.
The least impressive period of the match then followed with far too many penalties being conceded by the hosts. It was no surprise when Cameron Catleugh took advantage of the resultant pressure to score, leaving an easy conversion for Fisher. At 15-14 the match was very much in the balance, but individual brilliance from Rian Hamilton who made a fabulous break and had the ever alert Oli Riddiough on hand to score under the posts, leaving another straightforward conversion for Davidson.
Further penalties went Sheffield’s way until great play going left resulted in the impressive and very mobile Eliot Stockton scoring, leaving an easy conversion for Davidson. The visitors never gave up, but valiant tackling prevented them scoring until Alex Begg touched down on the hour. The extras were added by Fisher to make the score 29-19.
Wharfedale were not finished and superb combined play by Davidson, Cicognini, man of the match Blackwell and Riddiough saw the latter go over for his second try despite not being on the field for the first half hour, a period when Omari Kaup-Samuels was an admirable substitute. Davidson added to his tally of conversions to make his kicking tally 13 points.
The final score was 36-21 with five league points going to Wharfedale and none to second placed Sheffield. The disappointing 24-28 home loss to Leeds is now a distant memory, the side from West Yorkshire outscoring Dale by four tries to three on that occasion.
The Green Machine remain 5th with five games of the league season remaining.
