6:28pm Wednesday 17th February 2010
By Gordon Thomas
London Scottish returned from their first visit to the Avenue a mightily relieved side.
No doubt they will convince themselves their resilience in coming back from the dead, the dogged resistance they mounted a man down for more than half the game, and their capacity - for the second week in a row – to ‘win ugly’ gave them belatedly a deserved and hard-fought victory.
Midway through the second-half of this feisty and niggling match, Scottish looked down and out. Wharfedale led 10-6 and were in complete control of possession against a side signalling all too obviously that they were struggling to cope with the loss of flanker Oliver Brown on 37 minutes to a red card.
But with Greens’ flanker Latu Maka’afi sin-binned in the last quarter and parity restored the visitors were able to first edge ahead with a try by winger Gareth Howells and then seal a most unlikely victory with Howells worked free a second time in the corner.
But the reality was somewhat different. This was a match that Wharfedale frittered away. A game in which by some reverse alchemy a golden opportunity turned to very base metal indeed.
A game where third-quarter tactical naivety and ineptitude when in total charge of the match not only failed to turn the screw but allowed a tortured side to escape the rack and wriggle free.
It all just seemed too easy merely a matter of time before the Greens added the final coup de grace. The visitors were groggy, on the ropes and waiting for the knock out punch - which sadly never came After the break Wharfedale spent 20 scoreless minutes toothlessly moving the ball in the middle third of the field instead of condemning the Scots to deep defence at their line.
True they were unlucky when a surging 20-metre maul ended with a dispossessed knock-on over the line, but it should not have come down to the odd single moment of scoring pressure alone. For three-quarters of this spirited and aggressive, if largely uninspired match, the Greens were in total charge, never allowing the visitors the easy fluency of movement and pacey inter-play that distinguished their performance in their hefty win at the Athletic Ground back in early autumn.
Denied the springboard of any swift possession the Scottish half-backs, Simon Amor and James Brown, were hesitant and lacking in direction and the backline posed little penetrative threat. Wharfedale were able to make light of an early soft penalty easily converted by full-back Frankie Neale, before replying with an excellent opening try.
Good chasing-down pressure led to a hurried clearance kick being run back on the counter and fast hands through the middle saw Dave Hall set James Tincknell free with a fine touchline surge, with Chris Malherbe on hand in close support to gather and cross at the line.
Mark Bedworth’s off-song conversion miss was to prove the prelude to a rare blank afternoon on the scoresheet for him as all four kicks at goal went begging - which in itself hardly helped the cause in a low-scoring encounter. Though Neale managed a further penalty to regain the lead the Greens’ command of territory and possession were tieing-up the game in sight of the Scottish line.
With Rob Baldwin sin-binned for foul play, Wharfedale - in defiance of current Six Nations logic - made light of the skipper’s absence in adding to their lead rather than suffering points against them.
A finely-judged Bedworth cross-field kick spilt open a hesitant defence allowing Ian Dixon a short dash to the line with prop Adam Mason’s fine anticipation and support supplying the scoring flop-over for Wharfedale’s second try.
The Greens’ 10-6 lead assumed a seemingly hugely inflated significance when minutes later with the interval looming miscreant flanker Brown - in the act of being cunningly led from the field ‘injured’ - was recalled to be formally dismissed with a red card.
In the lead, a man up and with a half to play, down wind at that. A game surely for the taking. With the Greens monopolising possession it seemed only a matter of time before they broke through a dogged visitors’ defence.
But the longer time went on and the more the Greens were marooned scoreless in the middle third of the field the more the visitors’ confidence - realising they were being let off the hook - visibly returned.
It only needed the moral fillip of Maka’afi’s yellow card restoring the contest to 14 apiece to galvanise the visitors into a final break-out putsch. With eight minutes left Howells sprinted over and although Neale failed with the conversion Scottish were ahead by a priceless point at 10-11.
Any hopes that Wharfedale harboured of a swift reply were scuppered by five minutes of expert keep-ball play by the Scottish forwards which allowed them to sew up the game and enjoy the luxury of s final buckshee Howell score to rub salt into the wound. Brown converted.
Wharfedale: L Gray; I Dixon (S Horsfall 79), C Malherbe, T Tincknell, D Hall; M Bedworth, S Cottrell (P Woodhead 77); A Mason, G Hindle (M Chivers 49), C Steel (N Dickinson 67), L Maka’afi, D Solomi (T Wareing 79), R Baldwin.
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