Otley 24 Doncaster 16
Doncaster hopes binned by disappointing lack of direction
Tries in the opening minutes of each half, the second of which an embarrassing howler, gifted Otley the points that made the difference at Cross Green where the travelling support must have doubled the gate. With Simon Bunting and Dan Montagu back from injury, Doncaster looked to have a line up capable of competing on even terms, and in general they did so, but it was to be errors and an inability to adapt to the vagaries of the French referee that cost them the match.
Playing up the famous slope in the first half, Doncaster set their sights on parity at the break recognising the importance of that slope, but quickly put themselves under pressure at the start of the match. First Jon Boden missed touch with a line clearing kick, then Donavan Van Vuuren knocked on the return punt to give Otley an attacking scrum which was successfully disrupted but at the reset Doncaster were penalised for standing up, and Simon Binns went to the corner for an attacking line out. Again Doncaster disrupted Otley possession, but conceded a penalty. Again Binns went to the corner and again Doncaster’s defence held out the maul, but when the ball went to the backs, winger Waisale Sovatabua appeared on an angled run to brush through poor Doncaster tackling in the centres for a simple try, which Binns converted with ease. Six minutes gone, all in the Doncaster ’22 and all the Otley pressure the result of Doncaster gifted possession. Things got quickly worse. Otley pressed again through midfield, and Doncaster conceded three quick penalties on the back foot. When Glen Kenworthy was next to concede one on the ground, the French referee lost patience and produced the yellow card in the eighth minute. To their credit Doncaster responded positively. Brad Hunt and Van Vuuren linked well up the left: a series of phases up the middle ended with Luke Nabaro one on one against Savatabua on the right, but he couldn’t finish it off. Then John Cannon drove through the centre and Otley were conceding the penalty for offside that gave John Benson his first three points of the match. Another Doncaster error, when Charlie Harrison’s clearing kick missed touch, saw Ian Shuttleworth skin Nabaro before making it deep into the Doncaster ’22, where heroic defence was again needed to prevent the score that looked likely. Shortly after Kenworthy re-appeared, Doncaster lost a second man to the sin bin! This time Simon Bunting saw yellow as he joined a maul from the side after Doncaster had conceded penalties in the minutes earlier. Bunting was the unlucky next offender to try the Frenchman’s patience, but it did reflect the pressure Doncaster were under for extended periods of the game. Binns took three points from the Bunting penalty to extend the lead.
From the restart, Doncaster won back the ball, pressed into the Otley ’22, a penalty advantage was played in front of the posts, but when Doncaster knocked on, the referee astonishingly did not return to the simple kick, deciding advantage was over! A critical error on his part, which the Doncaster players were quick to point out, but the decision stood. On the half hour, Nabaro was in the line making ground but held on in the tackle to concede the possession. The game was going end to end at this point, with Doncaster back at full strength again, but the difference was that when Otley were under pressure they cleared their lines under the calm organisation of Binns, whereas Doncaster were frantic and Benson twice missed touch to allow Otley back on the attack. On one occasion only a terrific Cannon tackle saved a certain try; and on another a blatant piece of crossing in midfield went unseen by the officials and forced huge defensive effort on Doncaster’s part to keep points off the board. The last act of the half saw a huge up and under being fielded by full back Shuttleworth just outside his ’22 when Russell Earnshaw arrived as he caught it to put in a bone crunching tackle: everyone in the stands cringed at the impact and from the spilled ball Van Vuuren tried desperately to wriggle through to the line but when he was held short, the referee came back for a Doncaster penalty that Benson landed with ease to give the half time score , at 10-6 to Otley, an encouraging look for the visitors. With use of the slope after the break, talk in the crowd was of the likelihood of a Doncaster win.
Any such thoughts were shattered with the first move of the half. An aimless upfield kick bounced around the Doncaster goal line as Boden and Nabaro looked at each other. Shuttleworth, following up in distant hope, couldn’t believe his luck and dived on the loose ball claiming the try. It didn’t look a convincing appeal but the referee and touch judge decided between them that it was a try and awarded it. This spurred Otley on. Rob Whatmuff burst though weak tackles and gave what should have been a scoring pass only to see it knocked on.; and then when Doncaster were again conceding a penalty at the maul, Binns opened the gap to 12 points. Two Doncaster chances were then lost to knocks on before finally hope was rekindled with a delightful sleight of hand in the Doncaster centres as Hunt put Van Vuuren in under the posts. He had plenty to do to get there and he managed to do so despite the close attentions of two defenders. The gap back to five points and fresh legs in the shape of Llyr Lane and the debut of Joe Van Den Berg into the action. But again it was a penalty conceded needlessly at a line out that interrupted the Doncaster momentum. Binns slotted it coolly from 35 metres, but minutes later Benson negated it with one of his own when Otley were penalised for collapsing a scrum under pressure. Benson had another kick after an across line out offence on the Otley ’22 but this time his kick clipped the outside of the post and the chance to come within two points with still 12 minutes on the clock was lost. Instead of sticking to the strategy of imposing forward power to gain territory, Doncaster instead appeared to play frenetic rugby that had no purpose to it and meandered across midfield aimlessly. The absence of Rob Liley has at times this season been apparent, but never more so that in this period when use of the slope and the earned momentum was scorned.
The final wound was inflicted when an Otley chip through was fielded by Ryan Peacey in his own ’22 and instead of clearing to touch, he ran laterally, was pinned in the tackle and penalised for holding on. Binns stepped up and his three points opened the gap once more to eight points, and even the consolation of a losing bonus point was gone. Doncaster’s day was then summed up in a nutshell. Van Vuuren had looked seriously unimpressed to be replaced with five to go by Michael Wood, who quickly injured his shoulder and had himself to be replaced on the wing by back row Oliver Cook! Doncaster will surely reflect that they contrived to lose this game when they will never have had a better chance of a win at Cross Green. Russell Earnshaw leads the forwards by real example, but the backs lack direction and this ultimately cost them the chance to win. That, and playing a man short for a quarter of the game, and conceding so many penalties. Pieter Muller wont enjoy the video analysis this week and will be seeking a radical solution before next week’s trip to bottom club London Welsh where a win is simply a must now.
A selection of pictures from the match can be viewed at http://www.pbarrett.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/2006/Otley%2024%20Doncaster%2016/
Otley: I Shuttleworth, T Rock, C Hyndman, R Whatmuff, W Sovatabua, S Binns, D Scully, S Trethewey, M Luffmann, B Fear, J Oakes, S Connor, J Tiffany, N Bland, G Wilson.
Doncaster: J Boden, D Van Vuuren (M Wood 73, O Cook 79), B Hunt (J van Den Berg 59), J Cannon, L Nabaro, J Benson, C Harrison (L Lane 59), S Bunting (R List 48), S Boden, N Tau (D Young 76), G Kenworthy, D Cook, R Earnshaw, R Peacey, D Montagu.
Referee: David Rosich (FFR)
|
