KYLE Dench was a proud head coach, despite his Otley team losing their National League Two North derby 42-28 at Wharfedale.

Otley, who had first use of the slope, scored as early as the second minute, but were trailing 21-7 at half-time.

However, they showed tenacity to score three tries uphill in the second half to at least secure a four-try bonus point, having won the reverse fixture 44-31 at the end of September.

Dench said: “I am happy to get a point overall. I thought that we attacked well at the beginning and end of the game, where we looked pretty dangerous.

“In the middle of the game we were dominated physically but towards the end we were moving the ball well. This is a tough place to come, we got a point and we move on to next week.”

Dench added: “We were pretty close to getting two bonus points out of it (by losing by seven points or less) at Wharfedale as we had a couple of line-out misses.

“We started particularly well in the first half. At times we have lost our way a bit this season through errors but Wharfedale attacked really well, particularly through the middle.

“And once Wharfedale get on top of you they are a physical team, they get beyond the gain-line and it becomes harder for us to attack as our energy levels are down so fair play to Wharfedale. They delivered their game really well.”

Other positives for Otley, their tenacity apart, as far as Dench is concerned is how his team attacked.

“The Leeds game was a really good example too, and teams expect that from us now - that we have a good attack and a good attacking shape - and we just need to finish these opportunities off.

“In other weeks it has been our line-out, which was fantastic today, or our scrums that haven’t been functioning or we have dropped passes. We need to tweak our game.

“We struggle when we are compounding errors when we are in a good position to score points, which puts pressure on us but Wharfedale played the corners really well and mauled to score tries.”

Otley were without Jason Holmes (elbow) - a good runner in the middle - through injury while Jason Moss was missing with a hamstring niggle, but Dench was pleased that forward Dan Preston Routledge could make his seasonal debut, playing for 62 minutes in two spells, though he is not available next week.

The visitors were also able to give hooker Ryan Gibson over an hour, though he was sin-binned in the 60th minute before coming back on.

Otley tries came from flanker Finn Warren-Lambert in the second and 48th minutes, winger Sam Taylor in the 67th minute and replacement Joe Rowntree ten minutes later, with Eddie Crossland adding four conversions

One issue has been the bad weather following the festive break and Dench admitted: “We couldn’t train at all last week due to Yarnbury being under three inches of snow, while our training ground was rock hard with snow on top.

“However, the lads really engaged with the challenges that were presented to them. They bought into it and it was a bit of a shock - here is a rugby ball again - but it is the same for everyone else.”

This coming Saturday, Otley, who are 10th in the table thanks to their bonus point, are up against third-placed visitors Sheffield, with Dench admitting that Otley haven’t always coped well with physical opponents.

He added: “They have a group of players who have been with each other for multiple years so they all know what they are doing. It is going to be a huge challenge and we have to be up for it physically first and foremost, but that is what rugby is about.”