Ensians knock Doncaster off their perch with dominant away victory

LAST Saturday Old Otliensians travelled to Doncaster to face Wheatley Hills and the visitors sealed a 39-19 victory.

The hosts were buoyant having won their last four league matches and started the game with an unsustainable fervour.

From the whistle they caught their own kick, and pressured the visitors for several minutes. However, the blues tackled well and resisted their advances. Prop George Martin made his mark early on, with some powerful scrummaging dominating his opposite man, and on more than one occasion forcing a penalty.

On the 15 minute mark winger Will Howarth dashed down the wing to the half way line before nr 8 Jay Walsh continued the charge. A penalty to Ensians gave Jake Bentley a chance to kick for touch. With a line out on the 22, Ensians saw Wheatley’s line for the first time in the match.

The home side couldn’t resist the barrage of short phases from Ensians, and lost composure. On the third penalty Walsh took a quick tap and almost made it to the line. Luckily second rower, Ali Campbell was on hand to pick up and squirm his way through the melee to score. Bentley added the extra two, giving Ensians the lead.

Otliensians kept up the momentum following the restart.

With a scrum on the half way, stand off Ollie Eaves passed wide to Jake Bentley who passed wide again to the wing. Howarth did well juggling the ball mid flight, before gathering and scorching down the wing. He beat two men to score and increase the lead to 12-0.

The next score arrived when George Martin continued an eye catching attack before being dangerously high tackled. Martin might not have noticed the foul, but the referee certainly did, and yellow carded Wheatley's towering second row, as well as warning their captain. Another kick for the corner gave the blues a line out just 7m from the whitewash.

Wheatley couldn’t contain their frustration and suffered another yellow card, this time for punching. Wheatley did well to resist the repeated forward attacks. The impasse was broken when Jake Bentley passed wide, missing two men, to Isaac Gillson on the right wing. Gillson cruised into the corner to score. Again the conversion was too challenging for Bentley, but the lead was more convincing now at 17-0.

Shortly after, Harry Bentley decided to go left to Jake Bentley, who broke through. With men in support it looked like the ball would continue left, but a pop to the right gave Harry Bentley an easy run in to score. A more favourable position for the kick, gave Jake the extra two and increased the lead to 24-0.

Moments before the end of the half, Wheatley scored a super try. With a penalty advantage at the scrum, their scrum half jinked through the line, before passing to his two centres in support. With a two man overlap the score was a formality.

Wheatley came out strong in the second half and didn’t give away possession until they were rewarded with a try. After two penalties the home side opted for a scrum 5m out, and successfully drove over to score and convert, narrowing their deficit to an uncomfortable 12 points.

Jake Bentley then kicked a penalty to increase the score to 27-12 in favour of the visitors.

Then Jay Walsh galloped through the opposition before passing the ball out to winger Haworth in support to finish. Again the conversion from the outer margins wasn’t to be.

With only 5 minutes left the home team’s fate was inevitable, but they valiantly gave it their all and were rewarded with another converted try.

In the dying moments of injury time, Jake Bentley made another break through the line before passing out to Jay Walsh. With no way through the ball was quickly gathered by utility man Ethane Heade to take the closing points of the match as the score ended 39-19 to the visitors.

This weekend Otliensians face local rivals West Park Leeds in the quarter final of the Yorkshire Silver Trophy. KO 2pm at Chaffers Field.