This weeks saw both senior teams at home, to entertain the crowds that come week in week out to support the teams, pitch one we had our 1st team against Dinnington, with both teams haven't having the best of starts to the season, so the result was going to be an important one. Which meant we was over the river on pitch two. We welcomed North Ribblesdale who themselves was coming off the back of a 17-0 win the previous week so having a confidence boost as well.
Thursday after training saw us with a team list of twenty one players making themselves available which is fantastic numbers for any team, sadly come game day we had a couple that had to drop out due to personal commitments and injury, but we still had seventeen players to choose from.
Now one of the player that couldn't play was one of our front row which meat we would of had to put one of our seventeen year old props in his place there by making go to uncontested Scrum from kick off, which it turn would of given North Ribb the game and league points, which the lads was not going to do, so up step Luke Peacock to move from second row to Hooker to make sure we played fully contested scrums, and what a job he did not losing any of the Bees scrums, think a change in positions for him could be on the cards, a big thank you to Luke for stepping in for his team and doing a great job to boot.
To the game from the off you could see Bees intention was to not allow their defensive line to be breached, specially after a great performance against a strong Ilkley side last week, with all the hard work the lads had been putting in at training looking at ways to improve, so it was clear it was going to be a long day for Ribb to break the lines, even when Ribb may of got past a couple of tackles they was always greeted with a strong challenge from a Bees player, with all the pressure from the start the Bees was awarded a penalty with Corey Spencer (Captain) pointing to the sticks going for early points up step Byron Finn to slot the kick out from just over the 40 meter mark straight through to easy the Bees nerves the Bees soon settled in to the game and showed the on the day just had to much power and speed for North Ribb, with a scrum not far from Ribbs try line it was Byron Finn to pick up from the base of the scrum and drive for the line at that distance there was no one going to stop him from there with the young seventeen year old having a 12 point hall in the game and putting in some huge tackling and strong running, but that would be said for every player today from the Bees team, with Dom Walker kicking the conversion the Bees looked in control of the game, the next score came from Ryan Wilson racing through the Ribbs defense and breaking through several tackle, with Ryan's speed on the wing and beating Ribbs players to the ball on turning the Ribb Defense on the back foot with kicking display from Alevro Casas another of our seventeen year olds and his frist game for the Bees this season stepping into Fly half spot, was no wonder he was to pick up a hatrick in the first half , the Bees was just starving Ribbs of any position of the ball , to add to their woes they lost a player with a head injury late in the first half, so put them under more pressure going down to fourteen players but to their credit still battled on.
the Second half didn't seem to start they same way with what looked like the Bees taking the foot of the gas and allowing Ribbs a bit more position of the ball but for David Exley gatecrashing one of the breakdowns with the ball popping out he picked up and set off down the blindside to take Ribb by surprise and going against the run of play at that time as well. It just seem to not their day with either handling errors or just the fact the Bees was wanting to show that what they have been doing in training they can also produce on the match day, as when Ribbs did mount a passage of play that tuck them in deep into the Bees half they just looked lost as to their next move but to be fair the pressure the Bees was putting on them they wasn't giving them time to think. and with the speed of the back line the Bees just pushed Ribbs back into their own half. the support play as well today from the Bees was great to see keeping the ball alive all the time this was evident when Dominic Walker pick up his first try of the season supporting the runner.
But not to be out done and arguably the moment of the match was Luck Peacock Try, with Ribb having a scrum deep in the Bees half pushing the ball out wide Luke popped up with an interception and set off down the field we are still out with the measuring tape but looks like it could be a full run of 90 meters, now this is a lad that play second row and was out pacing the Ribbs back line, with just Ribbs full back to beat Luke threw a cheeky dummy to him as to suggest he was going to kick down field and a step he was off to sit the ball under the post normally we have the water bottles on for the lads this time we had the oxygen bottle ready, this was really the last bit of the action fair play to Ribb the never gave up where some teams heads would go down they stay true to the task and played with spirit, and we look forward to the return fixture for another great game.
Like last week where i could name each and every one of our player today for their work rates and supporting of their team mates you couldn't really single anyone player out, the back battled just like the forwards when it came to defense and the forwards was just as equal in attack to the Backs to day so because of this my Man Of the Match goes to the whole team for a brilliant display today, their commitment for each other was outstanding, they themselves admit they are by no means the finished article but with the numbers they are getting to traing is helping to work on this, Well Done lads. next game see the Bees travel to Otliensians in the Merit League fixture.