Yorkshire Plate Round 2 Here We Come

Having comfortably won their last three games, scoring over 50 points in each of the matches against Halifax, Baildon and Ilkley, the game at Moortown was expected to be a closer affair; last season honours between the teams were even with a Bees win in North Leeds being cancelled out when Moortown visited Wagon Lane.
Despite their recent victories, Bees started the game a little tentatively; some handling errors and slow support play allowed Moortown to spend most of the early part of the game in the Bees half. However, solid defence and tenacious tackling, particularly from Bees full-back Harry Ellison, prevented Moortown from converting their territorial advantage into points. With the Bees pinned back in their own 22, a solid scrum followed by a good clearing kick was chased down well by the Bees backs and resulted in the first try of the game, which Nick Gore duly converted, despite the difficult angle.
The try revealed some weaknesses in the Moortown backs, which were exploited on a number of further occasions as the Bees ran in a total of 8 tries, all scored by the backs, Ryan Wilson, Andy Niczyperowicz, Harry Ellison and Matty Dilworth, with conversions coming from the boot of Nick Gore. Handling through the backs was excellent throughout the game but the pick of the tries came from an exquisite move when full back Harry took the ball at pace from winger Andy, who subsequently looped round to provide the extra man and score a try of the highest quality.
This fast flowing back play was only made possible by some good work in the forwards. Most notably Joe Bashforth’s tireless efforts brought him the man of the match award and there is no doubt that his was one of the outstanding performances of the day. Other forwards did their bit when called upon; as ever all the back row players worked well with some good impact play from the front and second row players. Will Scrimshaw had a particularly good game and in the set piece, Alfie Hutchinson and Sam Germaine hooked well to ensure that the Bees won most of their own scrums and an odd one of Moortown’s, despite being the lighter of the two packs.
It was good to see the Bees building on their recent successes with another solid performance but this is still very much work-in-progress and there are plenty of areas where improvements can be made. In the backs, there were a couple of occasions when gaps opened up in the line, which Moortown gratefully accepted, leaving us over reliant on the tackling of Harry. In the forwards, moments of hesitancy and some slow support play allowed Moortown to win more ball than they would otherwise have done.
Nevertheless, a well-deserved victory from a great group of lads with stacks of potential.