Otley report

By Elliott Josypenko
January 31 2005

As they prepared for the visit of Pertemps Bees, Otley were a side who had lost just one of their last five league games, were knocking on the door of National One's top four clubs

As they prepared for the visit of Pertemps Bees, Otley were a side who had lost just one of their last five league games, were knocking on the door of National One's top four clubs and were hungry to gain revenge over their Birmingham visitors for a 32-19 defeat back in October.

So it was no surprise that the Sharmans Cross Road club’s testing trip to picturesque Yorkshire on Saturday ended with a try-less loss.

“It’s never easy to come up to Otley and win,” said Bees director of rugby, Phil Maynard.

“We made some crucial errors, our kicking was more dangerous to us than to them. It’s a shame, but there was no shortage of endeavour and spirit from us.”

It was one of those kicking errors that led to Otley’s second try and wrapped up their victory halfway through the second half. Tim Walsh looked to have eased some pressure from the Otley pack on the visitors’ try line but his kick fell straight into the arms of Wasaile Sovatabua.

Luck was clearly not on Bees’ side because, as Sovatabua’s charge through the centre looked to have been cut short, the loose ball found its way into the grasp of Otley’s Neil Taylor, who then crashed his way over for the converted score.

The Bees look set for midtable obscurity this year, but Maynard is still viewing the next couple of fixtures as an indicator as to where his side will finish come May. “We have a tough month ahead of us, with games against Coventry, Bristol and Plymouth, so it will be after that when I can see where we will end up this season,” he said.

Visiting fly-half Walsh edged Bees into an early lead with a penalty but the advantage was to be short-lived. Full-back Ian Shuttleworth touched down minutes later, Simon Binns added the kick and Otley were on their way to victory. No 10 Binns then stretched his side’s lead further with a penalty after 15 minutes.

The hosts came close to heaping further misery on Maynard’s men just before the break. From a scrum on the right, Otley spread the ball to Taylor on the left flank but a last-ditch challenge stopped him going over in the corner and the 10-3 scoreline remained.

Shortly after the interval, Nick Baxter produced a trademark surge down the left flank, bursting his way past three players. The move didn’t lead to a much-needed try but it did contribute to Walsh finding space and sending over a drop-goal.

Bees’ play had been littered with silly handling errors all day and, because of this, they always looked unlikely to shrink the deficit. However, they did do well to prevent a very well-organised Otley outfit from going in search of a bonus point.

Deep into injury-time, replacement Neil Law chased down a stray ball as it bounced over the try line but, as the fresh-legged player looked to add the vital touch, Dave Knight was there to stamp out the danger.