YORK U13’s 29 – OTLEY U13’s 0

Sunday 20 September 2009

YORK U13’s 29 – OTLEY U13’s 0

On a beautiful late-summer morning, York produced a fabulous all-round display to outplay their visitors and run out comfortable winners, 5 tries to nil.

Despite several team and positional changes from the previous weekend’s victory against Doncaster, York started brightly and showed no signs of early season rustiness. Within 5 minutes, from a breakdown the ball was spun wide on the blindside to Alex Barnard, who from 70m out showed a great turn of speed and several sidesteps to outrun the defence to score a brilliant individual try to settle the home side.

Shortly after, good pressure from the York midfield backs caused Otley to knock-on, and Tom Bullough was first to react, deftly collecting the loose ball and romping home from half way to add to the York lead.

This was further extended only a couple of minutes later when Callum Simpson exploited a blind side opening and with a well judged chip beat the last defender, collected the bouncing ball and ran in unopposed for another try.

The scoreline did not truly reflect the pattern of play as Otley enjoyed good territorial advantage in the first half, but on the few occasions they threatened the York try line, the home defence was as defiant as ever and a try was never likely to be conceded today.

Turning round 15-0 up, York continued to play an expansive game, using every inch of the full pitch they are now playing on, and gradually the forwards began to impose themselves on the game with Tom Leonard and Ben Davies making strong in-roads in the visitor’s defence. With increasing possession, man-of-the-match Chris Cambridge showed good awareness of space from a breakdown, and beat several Otley defenders with great strength and pace to run in from 65m for a fantastic individual try, converted by Cameron Atkinson.

It was great to see York trying to move the ball wide from every opportunity, and it was only a matter of time before this adventurism was rewarded with another score, and Chris Cambridge was again the provider. Showing brilliant opportunism with a quick tap penalty, he single-handedly took on the static Otley defence, who had no answer to his long-striding athleticism, Will Emery knocking over the conversion for good measure.

The remainder of the game was without incident, and the final whistle brought to a close a thoroughly entertaining encounter. A great team performance was rewarded with a good victory, and York can look forward optimistically to the remainder of the season, with many of the squad members now having had a good work out, providing the selectors with some welcome headaches.

Try scorers:

Chris Cambridge (2)
Alex Barnard
Tom Bullough
Callum Simpson

Conversions:

Cameron Atkinson
William Emery

Players man of the match:
Chris Cambridge.