5 Point Away win

Wath travelled to Old Grovians worrying more about the semi final next week than the game in front of them!

A short warm up due to lads getting there late showed in the opening minutes as the usually dangerous Grovians full back broke through forwards defending the blind and went in from half way after poor Wath tackling. This seemed to wake up Wath who used their bigger forwards to good effect to repeatedly gain yards when carrying straight. This led to Jonty Morrisey breaking a tackle and offloading to full back for the day, Luke Pendlebury, going over for the try, converted by Anthony Barratt. Penny seemed to revel playing in a”free role” although we could do with a full back playing full back every now and then.

Waths forward dominance paid dividends once more when Bobby Lazenby went over from close range, Barratt again converting. Unfortunately for the Grovians 9 this was the end of his game, as he appeared to be underneath Bobby when he scored. I would surprised if he plays again after that!

Towards the end of the half the backs got in on the act. Steve Mason broke and he managed to get over the line in the corner, unconverted by Barratt. Grovians did manage to take advantage of more poor Wath tackling before the end of the half. Halftime score 19-12.

Three changes at half time, Hill, Bartlett and Coult on in the forwards seemed to kick Wath into gear once more. Another close range try from Bobby, a trademark close range move from Bartlett and Hill put Hill over and Holt scored from a little further out to make the score 34-12 and gave the Wath team chance to breathe a little. Holt in pariticular having an abundance of ball which seemed to take him by surprise! He later told me he “prefers the ball nearer to the try line if possible” Wath were able to take off some more regular players with a view to next week.

Grovians however upped their tempo and started attacking Wath quickly at every opportunity and went over for two more tries in the last 15 minutes and Wath ended up doing a lot more defending than they would have liked. A break with a couple of minutes to go was stopped by a good tackle by Pendlebury. If Grovians had have scored then, then Wath would have had an uncomfortable last few minutes with Grovians with a score. As it was, Wath still had the two score advantage and saw the game out. Final score 34-24 to Wath.

A good game to watch, played in great spirit as always against Grovians. An average defensive display with good attack by both teams.

Wath got through the game without any injuries and look forward to their National Cup Semi at V St Ives this Saturday.