THE sunshine brought out the crowds, as over 600 spectators watched Wharfedale defeat Billingham 40-17 at the Avenue on Saturday.
Not only that, but they were treated to some excellent flowing rugby.
The hosts had the better of the early exchanges, but mistakes stopped them advancing into the opposition 22.
The visitors then opened the scoring with an intercept try after 12 minutes by Luke Wilson who ran in from his own ten-metre line.
Dale started to put on pressure from the restart and Billingham were forced to clear for a Dale lineout outside the visitor’s 22. The ball was secured and a break by Oliver Cicognini down the middle was followed up with a quick recycled ball and Bradley Viner charging up to the line.
The Wharfedale pack pushed on with their attempts to score, and Ollie Riddiough darted over for a try, converted by Robbie Davidson.
Billingham’s restart was sent downfield and good following up by Rian Hamilton forced a knock-on and gave Wharfedale a scrum on Billingham’s 10-metre line. The scrum was efficiently won and with the ball flowing along the backs, through the hands of Riddiough, Hamilton and Harry Bullough, Bradley Viner scored in the right corner.
An excellent conversion followed by Davidson to leave the score at 14-5 at half-time.
After the interval, a blistering break by Josh Prell was offloaded to Hamilton for an unconverted try.
Dale’s fourth, bonus-point try was a result of clever play from the lineout. Billingham did not contest but Elliot Stockton kept the ball at the front and was rumbled over for the score, and Davidson was again accurate from the tee.
Confidence was showing in the backs and Hamilton was set up for his second try and Harry Bullough scored after more good handling.
Davidson converted both to take the score to 40-5. Hamilton’s try saw forwards and backs combining and going coast to coast with movement that the Billingham defence could not cover.
Bullough’s touchdown was the result of simple rugby with Davidson looping round to create the extra man.
Billingham did run in a couple of tries through Jamie Lane to give their travelling support something to cheer about.
Lane’s first try was a clever effort, as the referee had given the ‘penalty advantage’ shout.
He took advantage of the sleeping Wharfedale pack to score.
His second try also showed good reaction as the ball was messed up in midfield by Dale and he was quick to pounce on the loose ball.
Josh Burridge, who has now played 200 matches for Wharfedale and celebrated his 30th birthday the day before the match and said after the game: “That was a good win. We played some accurate and effective rugby built on a solid performance by the pack.
“Our recycling was quick which gave our backs time and space to run at the opposition.”
Up next for Dale is a home fixture against Hull Ionians on Saturday (2:00 pm).
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