Hudds Y.M.C.A. 15-50 Bees

Scoring seven tries and running up a half century of points away from home has got to be an excellent result in anyone’s books, yet there was certainly a feeling that Hugh Gumbs’ Bradford and Bingley side were not quite firing on all cylinders for much of this North One East tussle. When Ben Hockenhull was first to react to gather Lance Taylor’s penalty kick which had been blown back into play by the gusting wind to collect the visitors third try on 22 minutes, at that point the Bees had hardly put together any cohesive rugby and the home side were probably playing the better, yet trailed by 19 points to three after Hockenhull dotted down and Taylor slotted the conversion.

Adam Sucliffe got the Bees on the scoreboard after 5 minutes as he ran in support of a break by Kati Tuipulotu and as the big man crashed into the final tackler, the ball was neatly popped up for Sutcliffe to gallop the last few yards for the score. Taylor could not land the conversion from out wide to the right of the uprights, but that was his only miss from seven shots at goal after Bees scores.

Five minutes later the Bees were celebrating a second score as Aaron Magee collected a wayward YMCA pass to break away from in his own half, turning an attack from the home side into seven points at the other end of the pitch. While the Bees were not yet clicking when they attacked, the defence certainly looked solid and for all the nice handling and bumping and barging on the gain line from the home side, they never really made any inroads into Bees territory. On 19 minutes, Hayden Quigg got the YMCA on the board with a penalty, but almost immediately Taylor was lining up a penalty at the other end of the ground. The wind got hold of the ball as it flew wide of the posts, ballooning the ball back towards the Bees. Scrum half, Hockenhull was quickly in pursuit and a very kind bounce saw him collecting the ball to dot down under the sticks.

As half time approached, the game looked to be settling down into a fairly evenly matched affair with both sides looking good in defence and rather sluggish in attack. Right on forty minutes, the Bees made a half break to their right and after some quick hands, flanker Marco Svagusa crashed over, meaning the half time score was 26 points to three and the Wagon Lane men had their four try bonus point secured.

The home side opened the second half much the brighter of the sides and were rewarded almost from their first possession as Mark Davidson burrowed over. Quigg could not improve the score, but with almost a full half to play, the home side now had their tails up and were looking for a second quick score to get them back in the game. However, it was not to be as the Bees defence repelled everything thrown at them and as the clock ticked on towards 50 minutes played, Taylor stepped up to slot a penalty for the Bees making sure that the home side now needed more than three converted scores to pull level. Three minutes later the game was put beyond doubt after a fine move from left to right put Sutcliffe in for his second score f the game. The Bees now appeared to have found top gear and it seemed all they needed to do was get the ball out wide into the hands of Sutcliffe or wingman Magee and the scores would be there for the taking. However, the Bees then lost Ryan Wilson to a yellow card and while the winger was off the field, YMCA managed to get good field position and send William Burns-Smith over. The Bees still had a 23 point advantage with around 13 minutes remaining but it was clear that the home side were not going to simply roll over as they continued to battle gamely.

The Bees had a long period where they seemed intent on bashing a hole through the middle of the home defence, although it had seemed clear that the quickest way past the home defence was out wide. On 72 minutes, Bees’ skipper Tom Booth seemed to have remembered this and set off on a gallop up the left. With defenders bouncing off him as he charged towards the left corner, it appeared the Booth might run out of pitch before he could round the final man. However, he cut back inside and was over the line for a superb individual score which put the Bees over 40. Taylor’s kick put the Bees within a converted try of the 50 point mark and there were still around seven minutes on the clock. The Bees looked like they would not manage that final score to bring up the half century as the odd moment of panic with ball in hand combined with some good work from the home defence kept Gumbs’ men at bay. Then, with the final play of the match, the ball was flicked out to Magee to the right of the posts and he needed no second invitation to step round the final defender and over the whitewash.

Next weekend the Bees host Moortown, the only side in the division with a maximum ten point haul from the opening two rounds of league competition.