Beverley Braves Earn First Win Against All Blacks

Beverley Braves Earn First Win Against All Blacks

After promising performances in their first two games it was only a matter of time before under 12s put in a winning performance and on a sunny spring morning, they completely dominated a hard-working Hull All Blacks side.

After a scrappy start which saw both sides make errors with the ball, the teams then got into their stride with the Braves spending much of their time on the All Blacks half but held at bay by some strong tackles. Ryan Deane made some good inroads into the All Blacks defence in the Braves early possession, and the first score looked to be on the cards when put up a high kick on the last tackle causing panic in the defence before the ball bounced dead behind the All Blacks sticks. Thomas Cohen, playing up front again worked hard as did Ollie Gresswell and with Jack Turner finding some space around the ruck, the Braves were making strong progress up the field and a score seemed inevitable. Ethan Rowbotham went close before Lewis Egan jinked his way through, seemed to be tackled only to pop the ball out for the supporting William Wallis to crash over to make it nil4.

Joe Dennis tackled his heart out again, before retiring with a bump to the head and Matthew Hutchinson made some good yards up the field. The introduction of Oliver Loney added extra impetus and when he, and Walker nailed the All Blacks player behind his own line, it set up the position for George Lees to score, Walker’s conversion making it nil10, which was the half-time score.

Playing in to the breeze could have meant a difficult second half for the Braves, but they started in the best possible way with William Kirkup backing himself to go outside the on coming defence and race 50 metres to score under the posts. Turner’s conversion made it nil-16 and the Braves were in strong position. Not to be out done after seeing Kirkup fly down the left wing William Wallis did the same just a few minutes later down the right, Turner again converting to make it nil22 and the Braves were out of sight.

The All Blacks did get some consolation. However, when a great Braves kick down field was not matched by the quality of the chase meaning the full-back could field on his own line before racing the full length of the pitch to make it 6-22 with the conversion. The Braves could have been forgiven for calling it a day at this point, with the win seemingly in the bag but a short Walker kick off was gathered by Kirkup on the left. From the resulting position, it was that man again, Egan, who was able to provide the perfect pass to put the supporting Dylan English in the clear to dot the ball down and complete the scoring at 6- 26. His role in creating two tries and topping the tackle count earned Egan a deserved man of the match award.



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