Corinthians 10 Wath 43

Wath began their 2023 - 24 season with a potential banana skin with an away match against rugby league orientated Leeds Corinthians. Setting the tone from the kick off, Wath were able to dominate possession and play confident 15 man rugby. However, as expected the home team defended strongly and kept their opposition at bay.
Following a penalty to touch by Jack Whitlam, that put Wath close to the Corinthians line, his forwards won clean ball a formed an unstoppable rolling maul. As they crossed the line for a try James Thompson was in control of the ball to touch down. The first score of the game put Wath 0-5 ahead after 20 minutes. Whitlam’s conversion was missed but he soon made amends with a penalty to extend Wath’s lead to 0-8.
Continuing to dominate the set pieces and getting to the breakdown first to win the ball Wath restricted the home side to long, hopeful kicks that were well covered by Adam Clark, Rory Anderson and Alex Butterworth, Wath’s back three.
Just before half time Wath’s centre pairing worked well together as Steve Mason made a break and fed the ball on to his partner, Patrick Selkirk, he was left one man to beat before a simple run in under the posts. Whitlam’s successful conversion took him to the incredible milestone of reaching 1000 points for Wath. The score moved to 0 -15 but on the stroke of half time Corinthians closed the gap to 3-15.
The pattern of the game remained the same into the second half and Wath added four tries , scored at regular intervals and all from close range. On 45 minutes, prop Brandon Coult went over and Whitlam added the extras to stretch Wath’s led to 3 – 22.
After 55 minutes second row Jake Keogh proved unstoppable close to the line and Whitlam further extended the away teams lead to 3 -29 and this 4th try provided Wath’s bonus point.
Just after the hour mark back row Joe Earp got on the score sheet with a try and Whitlam made no mistake in taking the score to 3-36. Their final score in the 70th minute was the result of a cheeky reverse, backhand pass from scrum half Joe Bartlett to the ever willing Earp who added his second try. Whitlam completed Wath’s scoring to put Wath 3-43 ahead.
Corinthians never gave up and showed enough spirit to continue battling. Their efforts were rewarded with a converted try just before the final whistle to make the result 10- 43.
This was a very promising opener for Wath who looked sharp and well organised with solid scrums and excellent line out work .
Man of Steel for his work round the field and much more reliable throwing in was hooker James Thompson, who topped off his performance with a brilliant try saving tackle under the Wath posts.

Steve