BEVERLEY RFC 24 v DMPRFC 36

After a forgettable start, during which time there were occasions of poor positional defence and woeful kicking attempts, a creditable rear guard action and ‘never say die’ attitude throughout contrived towards a very encouraging win at Beverley RFC.

Home supporters were probably busily checking their record books in anticipation of a decent total after 20 minutes, with their side comfortably in the lead at 14 – 0, with two converted tries and with Park failing to register with the statisticians.

There were opportunities to put points on the board during that time, but penalty attempts proved inaccurate and for a while it looked as if it just wasn’t going to be our day.

A try by Matt LISTER began the fight back and after a further Beverley penalty, some enterprising individual play gave the same player his brace on the half hour, but neither were converted as kicking attempts continued to go astray.

A change of kicker heralded our first penalty kick as Todd HARRISON slotted over a difficult opportunity and this was added to by Sam ERRINGTON, who to his credit returned to his duties and was successful with another penalty just before oranges, pulling the score back to 17 – 16 in favour of the home side.

Beverley had lost two players during that time, the first for persistently infringing at the ruck and the other for an illegal tackle, which arguably prevented Park scoring a try. This did give Park an obvious numerical advantage, but Beverley weren't down to thirteen for very long.

Nevertheless, the turnaround had begun and oranges delivered some careful and considered words of wisdom, which were thankfully taken on board by all concerned, as things were tight and capable of going the other way.

The lineout began to function consistently with Matt WOOD and Andy WILSON to the fore and bearing in mind the enforced changes in the pack, the scrummages were putting the pressure on our opposition, with a mixture of power and tactful enterprise.

Somewhat against the run of play, Beverley added to their tally, when they broke out of defence and scored a good converted try.

This interlude seemed to galvanise Park, who proceeded to dominate proceedings from that point on, with Beverley now failing to bother the scorers.

Great ball carrying and effective off-loading from all of the Park forwards lay the foundation for some incisive breaks by a backline which was now functioning cohesively and it was no surprise that Robin EATOUGH and Dean KELBRICK added to the try total, the latter being somewhat fortuitous after having been played onside from our loose kick out of defence. Both tries were converted by a more confident Sam ERRINGTON.

That score of 24 - 36 proved to be the final of the game and although Beverley did attempt a comeback in the last ten minutes, strong defence kept them out and allowed Park a deserved win.

Beverley RFC contributed to a good game to watch on the day, with some strong centre running and as long as their inspirational skipper is kept fit and on the field, they will continue to provide stern opposition.

From a Park perspective, registering the double and achieving a 36 points total, as we did back in October, was down to a great overall team performance, resulting in five hard earned, deserved points on a day when our character was tested and we were not found wanting.