Under 12s
Matches
Sun 29 Jan 2023
Otley Rugby Club
Under 12s
60
30
York
U12's come out on top over arch rivals York

U12's come out on top over arch rivals York

Elizabeth Fox31 Jan 2023 - 21:54
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"A fantastic game between two excellent U12 sides"

Otley U12's continued their blistering start to 2023 with another victory, this time beating arch-rivals York. York have had the wool over the lads since way back to the U7 tag years, and with the reverse fixture falling to the cold snap pre-Christmas, Otley were certainly up for our toughest test of the season.

We didn’t start out that way and showed far too much respect to York. Some sloppy tackling, slow rucks and fairly average decision-making allowed York to score a couple of early tries. Toby Foster continued his excellent form and pulled a try back for Otley before York pulled away again, mainly to some aggressive running lines to go alongside some very un-Otley timid tackling. 15-5 at the quarter.

Playing down wind now, and a few words from captain Will Reavey, seemed to get the team into gear. Hamish Hibbert, Rhys Stokey and Reavey himself all crossing the white line to put Otley into the lead 20-15. Both teams were now really at full tilt in both attack and defence, and the game was an excellent spectacle.

Otley’s tactics of spreading the game wide to negate the bigger York team was working, but York would not miss the chance to score when Otley did make an error. Louis Broughton relived some of the pressure with a fine long rang score, George Nancolas powered over and the going into the final quarter the game was level at 30 points each.

The game felt like the next score was important, and it was the skipper who got over for his double. From the resulting kick-off, Hibbert scored his second from a fine individual run which proved to be the killer score. York then made some mistakes caused by chasing the game, and Otley picked the correct option to score 4 more tries through AJ Toyne, Charlie Medley, Stokey and Foster.

An absolute stormer of a game between 2 very good U12 sides, and it was finally good to get a W over York after years of trying. Another tough test this Sunday, with a visit to Airebrough for the lads.

Match details

Match date

Sun 29 Jan 2023

Kickoff

10:30
Team overview
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