Tigers Bring Braves Winning Streak To An End

After an amazing run of eleven consecutive wins, Beverley Braves under 14s finally lost in a great game at Cottingham Tigers. When the two teams met just over a month ago the winning margin for the Braves was fourteen points, this time it was the Tigers turn to win by the same margin with a final score of 40-26.

A sixteen point lead was established in the first twenty minutes as Cottingham raced into to 16 nil and it could have been worse had it not been for a try saving tackle from full back Ben Hodder.

The Braves were their own worst enemies with several errors and penalties inviting the Tigers to attack, this exposed some defensive frailties out wide as they failed to drag across and number up to match their opponents numbers.

In the middle there was plenty of work to do and the smallest player in the Braves team, scrum half Lewis Egan led the way regularly felling players much bigger than himself and topping the final tackle count with well over twenty. Alongside Egan, Oliver Loney and Will Swainston put in some hard work in defence as well, but 16nil was going to be a long way to come back from.

After some indecision in the Braves attack, they were clearly not firing on all cylinders, hooker Jack Turner was caught in possession with no willing runners but was able to slip the ball to Archie Murdoch who scooped it up to race seventy metres and score under the sticks, Turner’s conversion making
16-6 and as unlikely as it seemed the Braves were still in this game.

They began to believe in themselves and should have scored again on the back of some great runs from Kai Johnson and Tom Baker. Will Kirkup mopped up a ball well. However, just a few minutes later fast hands saw a score in the right-hand corner and although unconverted at 22-6 there was a mountain to climb for Beverley. With time fast running out until half-time they needed the next score.

Marcus Walker’s kick off bounced into touch and with seconds left in the half the ball came out to Walker at stand off and he delicately chipped over the top for Harry Vorverg to collect and score and at 22-10 they were still in the game.

The second half remained scoreless for some time, but it was the Walker – Vorwerg combination again, that broke the deadlock. The former put in a high cross field kick which was not collected cleanly by the Tigers defence and the latter was there to scoop up the ball and score, at 22-14 it was game on.

The Tigers kick off was taken superbly on the run by Ethan Rowbotham reminiscent of Gary Kemble (one for the older ones there) and then proceeded to make good yards up the field. On the back of this go forward Walker took the line on and popped up a great pass to Vorwerg, who raced away to complete his hat trick and with Turner’s conversion, it was 22-20 and all to play for.

Unfortunately, the Braves could not continue this momentum, and Cottingham got a vital score to put them eight points ahead. In previous seasons this Beverley team would have given up at this point but they came back again and up popped Rowbotham at acting half back whose quick hands fed a charging George Bennett-Teare who crashed over under the posts, converted by Walker the margin was once again two points.

Cottingham upped their game. However, and despite hard work in defence with Ollie Gresswell now on the field and working hard and a superb catch from a towering Tigers kick bu Tom Cohen their resolve was eventually broken with two quick tries to make it 40-26.

A disappointing result for the Braves but they remain in a strong position at the top of the league, overall it was a great advert for the game at this age level it’s hard to believe only one of the players on the pitch has been selected for the City of Hull Academy. Men of the match Vorverg and Egan, but significant contributions from Rowbotham, Walker and Murdoch alongside them.