Braves Unable To Tame Tigers At Leisure Centre

The Beverley Braves hosted a strong Cottingham Tigers outfit at wind-swept Beverley Leisure Centre in an evenly matched forty minutes of rugby. The scoreboard was cruel, and gave little indication to the quality of the rugby displayed by the Braves, with an outstanding team performance the boys should be proud of.

The Tigers struck first, capitalising on a knock-on at the kick off to put four early points on the board. Characteristically, Beverley tightened in defence, cancelling out anything the Tigers threw at them in attack, and always looked threatening with ball in hand. In truth,the game was hampered by more than a few dubious referee decisions, and Cottingham went into the break with a slender 4-nil advantage.

The Beverley Braves started the second half as they had finished the first, and were the stronger team for most of the second twenty minutes. The Braves were solid in defence, and finally reaped their just rewards in attack, when Tom Parkinson went over for a well deserved solo, and team try to level the scores.Beverley had back to back sets in Tigers territory, forcing two goal-line dropouts.

Connor Weinman took first drive on the first, and despite looking wrapped up,offloaded a perfect pass to Tom in support, who raced out wide and over the white-wash. Joe was unlucky with the conversion with the strong wind stopping the ball short when heading between the aitches.

Both teams cancelled each other out until the final minutes, when the Braves were punished by a lapse in defence out wide and a cruel bounce of the ball on a Cottingham kick on the last to hand a flattering 16-4 victory to the visitors.

MOTM – Cameron Yorke, outstanding in defence and attack,fantastic to see him back in the blue and yellow.

Final Score: Beverley Braves 4 Cottingham Tigers 16