Woolston Rovers 42-16 Beverley
This was another tough day at the office for the Blue and Golds, with positives again been drawn by the effort and enthusiasm that is being shown by the young squad. It was a similar story to previous weeks, where Beverley looked to be building momentum but turned over possession at vital stages and the opposition took advantage. Sam French’s message to the players was again ”We need to play smarter”.
Very heavy traffic on the M60 caused the kick-off to be delayed until 2.45. When the game finally got underway the home side found touch with the kick-off to give them a dangerous attacking set from which they then forced a line drop-out and repeat set.
Having weathered the early storm, Beverley settled down and created an early chance when a dummy and break by Lewis Poskitt saw his pass to a supporting player go to ground with the line beckoning.
At the other end, the hosts took the lead courtesy of Theo Holt ghosting through a gap to score with Ben Dixon improving in the 11th minute. In the 22nd minute, Ben Dixon crossed and converted his own to put Woolston 12-0 up. Beverley were really under pressure at this point as they conceded penalties and had to defend many sets close to their line.
The half-hour mark did see a reply when Woolston coughed up possession close to their line. The resulting attacking set saw the ball thrown around before Francis Coggle managed to squeeze over. Josh Poskitt converted. Moments later further attacking plays did see Josh Poskitt unlucky to be held up over the line.
In a disappointing end to the half, the home side added 2 further tries from Adam Files and Dan Fearnly both converted by Ben Dixon. With the score standing at 24-6 at the break, Beverley had something of a hill to climb.
The third quarter of the game saw Beverley enjoy their best spell. Five minutes into the half, a surge at the line by Jake Hart-Fisher saw some delaying tactics by the opposition which resulted in a sin-binning. As Beverley camped out on the Woolston line with several surges at it, finally Alex Calvert’s long ball found Beau English who crossed wideout. Josh Poskitt added the difficult conversion.
Unfortunately, the restart kick was allowed to go dead which resulted in further pressure but the defence was equal to the task. Soon after, a dummy and break from deep inside his own half by Lewis Poskitt, saw him find Jonny Norman in support who crossed wideout. The conversion could not be added but at 24-16, it seemed it was game on.
However, a short restart kick saw Woolston regain possession straight away. Beverley then had a mountain of work to do in defence which took its toll. Adam Files and Dan Griffiths crossed for tries both converted by Dixon to stretch the hosts out to 36-16.
After Alex Calvert had regained possession from the short restart, some pressure did result in Francis Coggle seemingly going over for a consolation try but was pulled back for crossing.
In the closing minutes, Alex Smith added a further score for the home side goaled by Dixon.
Jake Hart-Fisher’s strong running did earn him the man of the match as decided by the opposition in the clubhouse afterwards. He was pushed close by Josh Poskitt who has revelled in the full-back role of recent weeks.
Nick Robinson