Thorne 50 Wath 36

Thorne in Wath’s Side

After last week’s efforts to defeat the league leaders Wath were quickly reminded of their lack of consistency when the home team, Thorne, scored a try from a move that began under their own posts. At 7-0 Wath did respond immediately and from a line out in the opposition 22, Jason Cotton created havoc and was able to touch down for a try. Jack Whitlam’s excellent kick levelled the score at 7-7.

A period of scrappy play with both teams making unforced errors eventually resulted in a kickable penalty to the hosts and a 10-7 lead. Despite being reduced to 14 men after a yellow card, Thorne went further ahead 17 -7, due to strong running and passive defending. After 25 minutes Wath lost influential Luke Stead to injury and Thorne again capitalised on Wath losing possession and their fragile tackling. The score was increased to 24 – 7 by another converted try.

Wath got back into the game before half time. Adam West crashed over near the posts and Whitlam converted, 24 – 14. From the restart West gathered made good ground with excellent support play from Steve Mason and Anthony Barratt especially. He gave winger, Sam Holt, space which he exploited to score a great team try. The conversion was missed and Thorne responded with a try on the whistle of half time to go into the break 29-19.

The second half started with 20 minutes of scrappy play with no further score until great inter passing between West and Rory Anderson gave Tony Kenney, up in support as usual, a run in to the line. Although the conversion was missed, Wath had closed the gap to 29 -24. Unfortunately, despite Wath’s dominance in the set pieces, their defence in the open was fragile and continually exposed by the Thorne determined attack. The game was taken from Wath with a blitz of 3 unanswered tries as Thorne moved away to a decisive 50- 24 lead.

Wath, led by substitute, Richard Hill, did restore a little pride near the end as he drove over the line twice to close the score to a slightly more respectable 50 – 36 at the end. A rest from league fixtures will give the Wath players and coaching staff time to reflect on a performance well below the standard set the previous week.

Steve Corns