More solid stuff from Under 15s

Moortown turned up with just 12 players and it was only after Callum and Pete came forward that the referee agreed to let the game go ahead, although a lack of front row players in the Moortown team meant that the scrums had to be uncontested. The scrum was one area where Moortown had been stronger in the previous encounter in North Leeds back in November, a game which Bees won convincingly. Our backs exposed a few weaknesses in the Moortown defence that day when they ran in a total of 8 tries. Time would tell if this was an area where Moortown had improved.
The first few minutes saw the ball to’ing and fro’ing between the forwards as both teams tried to establish a platform. Moortown were looking pretty good in the ruck and maul but as ever Bees were defending solidly. Both teams were making the odd error in the chilly and damp conditions; a knock-on by Moortown around the Bees 10 metre line gave Bees their first scrum of the game. Nick Gore made the blind side break and released Andy Niczyperowicz who left the Moortown defenders in his wake to go under the posts for the first try, converted by Nick Gore.
The resulting kick off was confidently claimed by Ryan Wilson, who ran straight back at Moortown. The opposition stole possession but then knocked on; the referee played advantage and Andy hacked the ball down field; Matty Dilworth was first to the loose ball and surged forward, only to be well tackled just short of the line. Tony Butterworth, who had been following up, dropped off a little as Nick Gore claimed Matty’s release– Nick then fed Tony, who completed the job with a second try for Bees. When asked for a post match comment on his first try since the Aberystwyth tour, Tony grunted, “I just caught the ball and fell over the line - it was nothing special.” Well, I can tell you his Mum thought it was pretty special, and she wasn’t even there!!
Moortown kicked off again – this time Lewis Brook, stand-in prop for the day, caught well and set off for the opposition. A Bees knock-on at the breakdown allowed Moortown to clear but only as far as Andy, who once again ran back at Moortown. A well timed pass and a powerful run by Sam Jeffrey brought try number three, again converted by Nick.
And so it went on. Another kick off by Moortown, this time Sam Oddy made the catch and the initial run before setting up a text-book ruck. Lewis Brook took it on all the way to the line for the fourth converted try to take the score to 28-0. The next kick off was knocked on by Bees; Moortown won the scrum and some overzealous defending by Bees (handling in the ruck) gifted Moortown a penalty, which their powerful pack took on to score under the posts. The try was converted and the score was 28-7.
Bees kicked off to the Moortown backs; some aggressive attacking by Harvey Craven enabled Bees to claim possession and more good forward play followed by slick handling and the ball was with winger Ryan Wilson, who shimmied and slithered his way to the corner for try number five. Now, it was Alfie Hutchinson’s turn to run the Moortown kick off back at them; more suspect tackling from the visitors and the Bees were into the 22. Dominic Walker broke well from the back of a couple of Bees scrums with the ball eventually finding its way to the backs. A nice dummy by Harry Ellison and a loop by Matty Dilworth totally flummoxed the Moortown backs and Matty was in to take the score to 38-7 at half time.
A subdued start to the second half was livened up when Joe Bashforth took to the field. It is worth noting that Joe had strolled the 26 miles round the Yorkshire 3 Peaks in a mere 4.5 hours the previous day but still managed to bring some extra bite to proceedings. Bees continued to dominate things and ran in a further five tries (from Andy Niczyperowicz, Dominic Walker, Harry Ellison and two from man of the match Lewis Brook), with three conversions from experimental fly half Harry Ellison. The final score was 69-7, safe to say that Moortown still have work to do on their defending.
Despite the fact that Moortown were under strength and really didn’t provide much in the way of resistance in this game, Bees put in a solid performance to record an eighth successive win. It was pleasing to see that we had gone some way towards rectifying the failings of our previous match against Moortown. No gaps opened up in the backs and, on the whole, we supported the man with the ball well, only getting isolated on a couple of occasions. We have some tough games coming up which will provide a greater test of how much we have progressed this season but this win stands us in good stead and we can approach our next games with a degree of optimism.