Beverley Beat Visitors Sandal at Beaver Park

You couldn’t ask for better than this. Two teams going flat out with non-stop attacking rugby gave us a great match. Seven tries and most of them pretty good ones. Beverley have been threatening all season to click into shape and today it all came together with a fine performance that brought them a well deserved victory. With only one previous defeat and the best defensive record in the league Sandal found themselves conceding more tries here than they had previously given away all season. In quality there was not much between the sides but Beverley probably won because they took better advantage of their opponents’ errors and Sandal were never quite able to come to terms with the incisiveness of Junior Tupai and Sam Atiola in the Beverley centre.

Sandal got off to a storming start and were seven points up within four minutes from a try under the posts by centre Danny Mitchell which fly half Greg Wood converted. Once Beverley started getting the ball in their hands they responded in kind. Glen Walden shrugged off several tackles to go in for a try at the corner to reduce the lead and Goran Jelencic would almost certainly have added a couple more had forwards not been hanging about in the backline and denying him the ball.

Both sides were playing with great abandon but by midway through the half Beverley were beginning to get the upper hand despite Wood having stretched the Sandal lead with a penalty. David Worrall then caught the visitors off guard from a short lineout throw and he raced over virtually unopposed. Phil Duboulay converted from the touchline to put Beverley 12-10 up and ahead for the first time. Worrall was at it again in added time at the interval as he burst clear from a lineout in the Beverley half and put Jelencic away down the right. A pass inside and Tupai was over under the posts. Duboulay’s conversion gave Beverley a lead of 19-10 at halftime which was just about a fair reflection of the first half.

The second half had hardly got going before Walden was racing into the corner for Beverley’s fourth try with Duboulay again thumping over a superb conversion from the touchline. It looked like a commanding position but Sandal, like Beverley, were throwing everything into attack. They always looked dangerous with the ball in hand and you could never quite write them off. The difference was that Beverley’s defence this week was back to its best and Sandal could find no way through. Beverley on the other hand were quick to pounce on any Sandal errors and they invariably made it count. The result was some breathtaking play from the home backline with Duboulay and Tupai dictating things superbly in midfield. The forwards were also giving it everything. All eight had good games and it was a measure of their confidence that they were able to take off Mark Hatfield and Dave Brant both of whom had been outstanding in the loose play.

Sandal perhaps out of frustration began to lose their edge and Beverley wrapped the game up a quarter of an hour into the second period with the try of the day. A Sandal chip ahead ended in Chris Harding’s hands inside his own 22. The full back side-stepped a couple of tackles and set off on a scything run up the middle. The defence opened up before him as he swept majestically into the visitors 22. For a moment we might have been watching David Duckham. With Worrall in support the ball was released to Tupai who touched down under the posts, Duboulay adding the simple conversion. Sandal rallied in the dying minutes and scored again with a converted try by skipper Dan McCormack but by then it was all over and the day belonged to Beverley. An afternoon of rugby at its best.

Report by John Nursey – Final Score Beverley RUFC 33 Sandal 17

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