7:08pm Wednesday 3rd March 2010
By Gordon Thomas
At least the Greens won well - or well enough against admittedly poor opponents but while the Greens will be happy winning for the first time against a team they lost to earlier in the season, there will or should be some grumbling concern at the level of the performance.
For this shapeless match - effectively settled within the opening ten minutes - lacked any drama, tension or urgency and the two moments of telling and effective play, an excellent try apiece, only served to highlight the general nullity on display.
Wharfedale can at least claim to some adaptability in their play. Last week they conjured a victory having trailed by 14 points for the first half hour. Here they gleefully accepted a gift-wrapped ten points in the opening minutes and then for much of the time sat back as if expecting further presents.
Though they added a couple more tries, what looked a respectable final score-line failed to disguise a lacklustre day which allowed groggy and limited opponents to recover and even gain a degree of second- half control of both possession and territory.
Newbury for all their forward strength have had trouble all season scoring tries: only Nuneaton and Manchester - the bottom two clubs – have gained fewer try-scoring bonus points than their three.
The visitors prop Kane Palma-Johnson and No 8 Ed Jackson had to have treatment to cut heads after an accidental clash during the warm up with Jackson side-lined until the second half.
Fortunately for Wharfedale there was little such ferocity in the Newbury play once they got on the field. The Blues’ largely second-string pack was big but ponderous. And despite a set-piece advantage at the scrum and a sufficiently handy line-out presence to prey on the Greens’ persistent deficiencies in that department they could provide sufficient ball for the Blues to stay in the game, but not the quick loose possession for them to threaten a score.
The difference between the sides leading to an ultimately comfortable home victory was when the chances came Wharfedale took them and Newbury did not.
The Greens were 10-0 up in as many minutes. First Mark Bedworth, celebrating a hundred League outings for the club, intercepted a cramped flat pass in midfield and romped home the 60yards to score. He is master at timing such intercepts leaving a chasing cover defence on the turn no chance of exploiting what deceptively looks to be a lack of true pace as the makes the line with ease.
He added the simple conversion and minutes later added a straightforward penalty as Wharfedale applied waves of early attacking pressure near the visitors’ line.
It took a further 20 minutes of undistinguished play before the Greens added another. A smart touch-line counter-attack break by Ian Dixon carried on by Latu Maka’afi ended with a beautifully deft slick interchange of short passes between Chris Malherbe and Dan Solomi for the centre to cross wide out.
Hopes that such a moment of skillful attacking splendour would ignite an otherwise dogged game proved mistaken. Newbury roused themselves sufficiently to pressure the Greens into conceding a string of potentially kickable penalties. But with four of them well in range of Mitch Burton’s boot they opted unwisely for more attempts to set up try-scoring chances which never looked to materialise.
They did manage a lone try by centre Michael Mangeolles just after the interval which in one sense mocked their earlier palsied efforts to score. Wharfedale were eventually able to regain the comfort of a 15-point two-score cushion with a final try midway through the half when hooker Steve Graham was driven over. This at least was fitting reward for a rare period of positive creative play with Dixon and skipper Baldwin both touching down only to be over-ruled. But they never seriously thereafter threatened a further bonus-point score as Newbury closed the game in attacking territory and Wharfedale lacked the urgency or wit to brake free.
At least the Greens succeeded in keeping fifteen men on the field for the whole game - a welcome positive in terms of discipline over recent weeks. But they will have taken little else other than the win from this under-par performance.
The set piece never produced a platform for penetrative back play and the line-out misfired badly.
The Greens will need to up a gear or even two at Tynedale when they face one of the very best attacking sides in the League.
Wharfedale: L Gray; I Dixon, C Malherbe, J Tincknell, S Horsfall (P Woodhead 70); M Bedworth, S Cottrell; A Mason, S Graham (G Hindle 69), N Dickinson (M Chivers 55), O Renton, A Allen (R Rhodes 63), L Maka’afi (R Brown 69), D Solomi, R Baldwin.
Newbury: C Perry (K Buttle 70); C Ridgers, N Scott, M Mangeolles, M Freeman; M Burton, J Avery; T Fidler (R Green 50), P Fincken, K Palma-Newport, D Hodge, I Ashcroft-Leigh, F Coxon-Smith, L Perkins, A Widdop ( E Jackson 41).
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