More so for Simon Willet who, on his 150th league start for Otley, had to come off after just 8 minutes having suffered an injury to his arm.

Up until that point Otley had spent a lot of time in the Wharfedale half, but a solid defence had kept them at bay. They remained there for a further five minutes until they conceded a penalty, Dales’s backs linking up well to take the ball to within five metres of Otley’s line before a scrambling defence halted them. They continued to pressurise Otley’s line and, from a line-out on Otley’s 22, their driving maul drew closer to the line until they were awarded a penalty try for side entry at the end of the first quarter. Otley also suffered a yellow.

Shortly after the restart Otley had a long-range penalty attempt which fell short, and then Wharfedale got up to Otley’s 10 metre line before knocking on. Otley got a penalty at the scrum, a second following shortly afterwards for collapsing the maul. Eddie Crossland kicked the ball to within 6 metres of the line. The forwards crabbed their way right before releasing the ball to Crossland who initially went with the drifting defence before changing direction as a space opened up to then dive over the line. Callum Irvine converted on the half hour.

With Otley only just back up to full strength, an illegal tackle by Ethan Thiart earned him a yellow card, which also saw Ben Waddington also coming off having been caught by a flying boot.

Having absorbed more Wharfedale pressure, Otley moved out of their half where the visitors conceded two penalties, Irvine opting for the one in front of the posts to take Otley into the lead. With just time to restart, Otley failed to gain possession with Josh Walters breaking through. The move ended when Wharfedale put a foot in touch, but they already had a penalty advantage in the pocket. A quick tap and go was followed with Tom Mann going over in the left hand corner, and he also added the conversion.

Otley were back to full strength two minutes into the second half, and kept Wharfedale penned in their half for the next five minutes. Now in their 22, Wharfedale conceded two penalties giving Otley a 5-metre line out. Debutant Alex Johnson and Reece Ward both went for the line on the right of the breakdown but were kept out, Adam Malthouse then went left to score in the corner.

The lead was short-lived, on 56 minutes Mann added a penalty after Otley failed to release in the middle of their half. Two minutes after that Louis Verity and Sam Gaudie broke through to see Sam Dickinson across the line with the flattest of passes, Mann adding the extras to put the Green Machine nine points ahead.

In the final quarter, Otley threw everything into the game and after a series of penalties in Wharfedale’s 22 reducing Dale to 14, they finally opted for a scrum in the left hand corner. The Otley pack then marched forward, the opposition pack stepped off giving Otley their own penalty try with a quarter of an hour to go.

Now within two points, the Otley pressure continued and a deliberate knock on bought Wharfedale another yellow and they were also marched back 10 metres although the Otley kick hit the upright. A drop goal attempt went wide, and the Wharfedale 22 went straight out maintaining the pressure on them. Still in their 22 their tackler failed to release giving Irvine the chance to get three points. That conversion heralded both the final whistle and both cheers and boos from around the ground.

It was a very good game to watch, with opinion split on who should have won. Some Otley supporters said after the game the best team lost, whilst some Dale supporters believed Otley had edged it because of their forward dominance. Adam Malthouse agreed saying “Our scrum probably won us the game, and Johnson who came on for Willet, was outstanding in the line-out and scrummaged well, and Ryan Gibson made an impact when he came on”. Bottom line is that rugby was the winner.