East Yorkshire Merit League One Play-off Semi Final

After finishing top of their merit league Beverley 2nds entertained 4th place Scarborough Vikings in their play off semi final a week after narrowly beating the same opposition 19-12 in their final league match.

 

An almost full strength Beavers, only missing injured captain Rob Vaux and the unwell Jamie Gill,  could not have wished for a better start as from their first foray into the visitors half fly half Ben Sherwood with a smart off-load out of the tackle sent centre James Graham away on a blistering 50 metre run to the line to score under the posts after only 2 minutes. Stand-in captain and scrum half Ian Archibald added the extras with a simple conversion.

Beverley continually made breaks into the Scarborough half and were unlucky not to add further scores as Number Eight Dave Brant crossed twice only for the referee to rule he’d been held up over the line.  However from a scrum on the visitors 22 a smart back row move sent winger Jack Courtney, with two defenders hanging off him and showing incredible power,  crashing over in the corner, too far out and the conversion was missed.

Scarborough had shown in the previous weeks encounter that they never give up and came back with a series of forward drives, although they were helped as the Beavers gave away a series of needless penalties and easy yards.  More pressure resulted in hooker Rob Todd being yellow carded for killing the ball and whilst a man down and from a scrum just inside the Beverley half a break by the visitors scrum half sent their burly winger over for a converted try.

Beverley had to soak up more Scarborough pressure but managed to hold out with 14 men and began to reassert themselves with the reintroduction of Todd.    It was from another scrum and back row move in the visitors 22 that they scored their third try as  Brant, Full back

Alex Nightingale  and flanker Adam McLatchie  combined to send Archibald over for a try he converted himself to send Beverley into the break leading 19-7.

Almost straight from the kick off Scarborough were penalised for not releasing and Archibald added three more points with a nicely stuck penalty.

Scarborough continued to take the game to Beverley but by now every time the beavers attacked a score looked likely. Some of the back play between Sherwood, Graham, Outside Centre Tim Hullock was of the highest quality.

With forwards Phil Cromie, Aaron Clark, Eddy Russell providing the go forward, Brant did finally get over the line after picking up from the base of a scrum and taking three defenders with him for a converted try.  Full back Nightingale was next to score as a quick tap penalty was spread wide and more quality handling sent him away for a try his performance deserved.  Centre Graham who had a fantastic game with his incisive running crossed for a second try from flowing move from fully 70 metres out as Beverley cut loose, Archibald adding both conversions.

Scarborough to their credit always kept going and tried to attack at every opportunity but got little or no change from a determined Beverley defence.  Courtney added a second and with the last play of the match and from a Scarborough ruck on the Beverley 10 metre line the Beavers turned over ball, spread it wide through several pair of hands for replacement winger Danny Docherty to touchdown in the corner.

This was an impressive all round performance from the Beavers who were clinical with their finishing and they’ll need a repeat of that on Sunday as they take on Malton in the Final at Driffield. Kick off 3.15pm.

These sides had fought out two close games during the regular season, both of which the Beavers won and another tight game was expected, however Beverley simply had too much power pace and no shortage of skill on show and ran out comfortable winners in the end.

Final Score: Beverley RUFC 53 Scarborough Vikings 7

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