Otley U17’s 27 v Old Brods U17’s 21

Old Brodlieans Junior Colts travelled to Otley on Sunday for their second game against Otley this season. In the first game at Woodhead the Brod’s had a comfortable 48-10 victory against a depleted Otley side.
In the opening few minutes the Otley came at the Brod’s with a determined attack and looked the much stronger side but the away supporters knew that the young Woodhead lads were not yet in their stride and urged them to wake up. After about 10 minutes in their own 22 the Brod’s finally started to win some ball and make some ground and started to show what they are capable of. Centre Max Sheldrake did well to create an overlap which Greg Roper was able to exploit to open the scoring with a try under the posts, Chris Bell made no mistake with the conversion to give Brods a 0-7 lead. This seemed to wake up the Brod’s lads and they were quickly on the attack again with Chris Bell finding space behind the defence with a kick which Peter Walker was quick to follow up, he chiped and chased the ball over the line only to be beaten to the touch down by Otley’s scrambling defence. Otley managed to win the ball from the resulting 5m scrum but their clearance kick was charged down and it looked like Brods were going to extend their lead but the home sides defence held out. Otley then managed work their way back into the Brods half eventually scoring in the corner to make the score 5-7. Brods were determined to fight back and when Otley knocked on from the restart they set up a maul which drove Otley back to their 22, Brodie Wilson spun free with the ball and broke two tackles to touch down within easy range for Chris Bell to extend the lead to 5-14. Otley were not finished in this half though and came back strongly once more and in the last minute of the half Chris Bell’s clearance was charged down and allowed Otley to score their second try to make it 10-14 at half time. Unfortunately Brodie Wilson went over on his ankle and could take no further part in the game; scrum half Ben Sumner took his place in the back row and Bradley Martin came off the bench to fill in at 9.
With Brod’s a forward down Otley found it much easier to retain possession in the second half and their big inside centre started to look dangerous. Their first score of the half came from another charge down as Brod’s desperately tried to clear their lines. This was quickly followed by another try which gave the home side a 22-14 lead and it looked like they were going to run away with the game. Things were made worse when a clash of heads put Harley Morris out of action and Brods down to 14 players having only come with one substitute. The Woodhead lads are made of stern stuff however and they managed to get back into their stride and started to out ruck Otley once more and made some progress up the field. After several phases Chris Bell passed out wide to Peter Walker who drew the defence and found Max Sheldrake on his outside, the pass went to Max’s finger tips and was just able to juggle the ball over the line to touch down under the posts. Not wanting to waste any time Chris Bell drop-kicked the conversion to make the score 22-21 with just 2 minutes to play. Otley were not going to give up however and they came back once more and their centre closed out the game with a try to make the final score 27-21.