Any thoughts of a repeat of last season’s remarkable victory over Wharfedale were quickly forgotten as Wharfedale brushed Old Brodleians away within the first 30 minutes of the game. Old Brodleians were already 33-5 down by this stage.
Captain Vollens won the toss and decided to face the hill in the first half, with the game played in glorious sunshine and very little wind, the Woodhead ground offered excellent playing conditions. Wharfedale took full advantage of this, spreading the ball wide after a clearance from Ian Mallard landed centre field, giving the Wharfedale backs time to feed the winger for his first try. Conversation missed 5-0.
The visitors quickly made that 12-0, from a line out their centres ran through some weak tackling to score under the posts for a converted try.
The home side offered some resistance with some excellent forward ball control, the whole pack worked well to push the visiting pack back up the hill 20 yards to allow Nick Womersley to make the score 12-5, Mallard missed the conversation.
But Wharfedale quickly got the upper hand, scoring 4 converted tries before the halftime whistle, the visitors winger leading the way with 3 tries, making his tally to 4 for the day. The home side went into halftime 38-5 down.
An early red card for the visitors for a dangerous tackle gave Brods some advantage, this allowed Michael Briggs a rare chance to run at the defence, eventually feeding the supporting fullback James Marshall to score in the top corner. Mallard missed conversation 38-10.
Brods replacements came on, this included a welcome return for Adam Jackson, himself and Nathan Scott giving Brods a little more stability in defence, but this couldn’t prevent the visitors adding 2 further late tries, making the final score 50-10.
It has to be said that Brods improved greatly in the 2nd half, but this game was lost in a 30 minute spell in the first half that put this game out of reach for the home side. I doubt many teams in this league will come close to this experienced and well organised Wharfedale team. Brods have to take to positives from this game and move on, but attending Tuesday and Thursday’s training sessions are a must if we are going to challenge these top side.

Final score 10-50

Men of the Match

2 points - Andy Finn, once again the young back rower stood up and put his body on the line the whole game. Excellent in the line out, defence and open play. It won’t be long before he has a taste of first team action.

1 point - Dave Skinner, solid in the scrum and never stopped working all afternoon, when the team was on the back foot.

1 point - Gaz Simpson, another lad who worked hard all afternoon against wave after wave of Wharfedale attackers

1 point - Dale Gardiner, the veteran made his first appearance for the season and started where he left off, winning several balls against the head and attacking the visitors defence whenever possible.