Wharfedale 4ths 17

Old Otliensians 2nds 31

WHARFEDALE 4ths finally got their season started after three weeks of no opposition and unavailability.

The game was played in the usual good natured spirit of two local teams virtually on first name terms.

Both sides only had 14 players so a good even contest was played throughout.

Wharfedale had the wind behind them in the first half and missed an early penalty kick.

End to end rugby was played with good phases of attack and defence. Ensians worked hard and eased into a 19-0 lead.

Wharfedale pulled an unconverted try back on the stroke of half time to turn round 19-5 down.

Wharfedale began the second half the stronger and reduced the deficit to 19-17 with two more tries and a conversion.

With 15 minutes to go, Wharfedale pressed for the winning points with the Ensians scrum creaking.

But an injury to the Wharfedale hooker meant uncontested scrums, and Ensians capitalised and ran in two more tries and a conversion to seal the game.

Pat O'Brien scored two tries for Wharfedale and Liam McCartan had one. Matt Donnezetti scored a conversion.