Vital Victory

It’s been a difficult few months on the field for Wath upon Dearne RUFC 1ST XV, frustrating losses and drawn matches Wath could and should have put away. As the business end of the season draws rapidly closer Wath were eager to get a much needed win with a view to finishing the season strongly and maintaining their Yorkshire One status.
It was a wintery day at Moor Road that welcomed 3rd placed Yarnbury and Wath could not have had a brighter start. The visitors fumbled the kick off and from a resulting maul the Wath pack barged their way over the line, young front row James McCarthy grabbing the try.
Unfortunately the bright start was short lived, within a few minutes the speedy Yarnbury backline had ignored the deteriorating weather conditions and began moving the ball out wide and at pace. A mis-judged kick from Wath around half way gave Yarnbury the opportunity to counter, they needed no second invitiation and raced away to score and take the lead 5-7.
For the next 30 minutes or so things did improve for the home side, Yarnbury raced away for two further scores before the half was out, extending their lead to 17-5.
However, Wath were not about to let their heads drop, with minutes still to play in the first half and with a considerable amount of snow beginning to fall Wath played the conditions well and squeezed their way over from close range to drag the score back to 10-17 at the break.
Early in the second half the visitors lead was cut to four when wing Tom Quinn stepped up to land a penalty 13-17. The weather showed no sign of improving and to no ones surprise errors from both sides began to dominate the second half.
Wath dominated both possession and territory for the final 30 minutes but it wasn’t until the final five minutes that a try seemed likely. The South Yorkshire men set up camp on the Yarnbury five metre line, two lineouts resulted in powerful mauls, both of which were illegally halted resulting in a yellow for the Yarnbury back row.
With no time left on the clock Wath chose to change tactics, a scrum was called and the pack set about their business. The first scrum, met with deafening roars from the crowd shoved Yarnbury close to their own line but collapsed before the ball crossed the whitewash. A second penalty to Wath.
Once again the Wath pack dug in, produced a monster of a scrum and shoved the Yarnbury pack over the try line, number 8 Matt Burrows showed great skill to keep control of the ball at the back of a rapidly moving scrum and Wath had the match winning try. Full time, Wath 18 Yarnbury 17.
A dogged performance from the Moor Road men was met with great applause from the crowd, it was by no means pretty but they got the job done and earned vital points at this stage of the season.