Beverley Show Heart As They Are beaten By Rivals Bridlington

This match had everything you would expect from a local derby plenty of tries, lots of incidents, red and yellow cards, and most of all lots of talking points.

It was a tale of the rapier versus the bludgeon from the off, with Beverley’s fast and flowing start sparked by Dan Lee’s incisive break leading to a switch of play from left to right resulting in a well-worked try for Jake Boardman.

The Beavers maintained the high tempo start with some free-flowing rugby and following an abrasive midfield break from Louie Frear good support play saw Phil Duboulay score under the posts which he duly converted. Beverley 12-0 up before Bridlington had drawn breath.

However, all that changed as the ref began to assert his mark on the game, a yellow card for Andy Meagher, was followed quickly by what appeared to be a harsh straight red card for centre Louis Butler for a high tackle, especially in light of some later unpunished incidents.

It didn’t take long for Brid to take advantage of the two-man advantage with Leon Bongare scoring from close range 12-7. Beverley were further punished when some short passing and straight running from Brid’s front row saw Fangupo charge over to give Bridlington a 14-12 lead, by the 20th minute.  

The game then became a bit of a stalemate with both teams creating openings without being able to capitalise, and a string of penalties against both teams creating a stop-start period of play. Perhaps the key moment of the match came just before halftime when after a period of sustained pressure from Beverley, Callum Gilson scored a well-constructed try for the visitors. A 21-12 halftime lead.

A second-half come back from Beverley was a tall order made more difficult by conceding another short-range try 6 mins into the second period extending Brid’s lead to 28-12. However, the home team weren’t going to give up with it being difficult at times to tell Beverley were a man down.

The bad news continued as the influential Phil DuBoulay had to leave the pitch with a facial injury. Yet his replacement Joey Franklin sparked Beverley’s response with a quick tap penalty being spun across the park for Dan Lee to race over to make the score 28-17.

The visitors managed to keep the Beavers at arms-length though by exploiting a tiring defence to add a fifth try all converted by the excellent Welch. Again, though Beverley showed that they are at the core a fluent team when they have enough ball with a well-worked final try sending Lee over for his second of the game to make the final score 35-22.

Overall a deserved win for Bridlington but with plenty of endeavour and heart from the entire home side just coming up short.