Bradford Dudley Hill 46-10 Beverley ARLFC

A much-changed Blue and Golds outfit slipped to their biggest defeat of the season in Bradford last Saturday. It was a familiar story of recent weeks as commented by Tony Spence. ” We cannot play without the ball. We cannot continually defend, defend and defend. Our completion rate was around 40%. Until we complete sets we will not get anywhere. Our priority next week and going forward is to complete sets. On a brighter note, when we did get some quality possession, what few chances we did create were well finished. ”.

The start looked promising for the visitors as they forced a line drop-out from the kick-off. Some early pressure and a repeat set troubled the opposition without producing points. The first half wore on Beverley were increasingly guilty of losing the ball early on in the tackle count and conceding penalties. The home side took advantage to post tries from Martin Southwell, Neil Wall and Dan Lee with Wall converting one of them to for a 14-0 lead. As the half came to close, Beverley did create a chance that saw Sam Roe send Lewis Miller into the clear only for the young winger to be pulled back for a forward pass.

The early moments of the second half saw Beverley on the attack but a dangerous-looking kick ahead by Lewis Straw bounced fortuitously into the hand of opposing full-back Aiden Batey who raced 70 meters to score. Wall adding the extras. After play was held up for several minutes to teat an injury to Josh Poskitt, Batey added another unconverted try for the home side which saw them lead 24-0. In the 55th minute, Billy Riby brought the visitors to life with a 70-meter break out of defence. After a few lunges for the line in that set, it ended with the ball being shipped to the right for Lewis Miller to score in the corner. The conversion was not added but Beverley then enjoyed their best spell of the game with Jack Howdle and Alex Calvert looking dangerous with the ball in hand. However, the home side added further scores from Aiden Batey and Tony Williamson in the 65th and 68th minute both converted to lead 36-4.
A re-start kick from Beverley did then force a line drop-out resulting in surges at the line from both Howdle and Beverley’s man of the match Dan Smart. Finally, Lewis Straw moved the ball to the right for Lewis Miller to score his second try wideout. Straw this time converted to pull the scores back to 36-10. Beverley tired in the closing minutes and Dudley Hill added injury time tries from Kyle Cator and Andy Walker with a further conversion from Williamson.

Bradford Dudley Hill 46 (14)
Tries: Southwell, Wall, Lee, Batey 3, Williamson, Cator, Walker. Goals: Wall 4, Williamson.

Beverley 10 (0)
Tries: Miller 2. Goal: Straw

Report by Nick Robinson. (www.beverleyarlfc.co.uk/)

Published – 27th June 2021