sports

Match Report: Huddersfield Versus Wharfedale

On a dry clear day at Lockwood Park Joe Altham led the Wharfedale team out onto the pitch to face Huddersfield on the occasion of his 200th appearance for the club.

Huddersfield kicked off and within 2 minutes took the lead through a Will Miner penalty making the score 3-0.

Within 2 minutes Wharfedale responded with a penalty of their own through Tom Mann making the score 3-3.

A long clearance from Wharfedale was collected and returned with great accuracy into the corner of the 5m channel. From the resulting lineout the Huddersfield forwards rumbled over the line for a try to Liam Stapley, Will Milner adding the extras to make the score 10-3.

The game was a bruising encounter of the forwards where no team gained supremacy but infringements and penalties were frequent on both sides.

Into the final minutes of the first quarter, Wharfedale were awarded a penalty which Tom Mann converted to make the score 10-6.

It was from another penalty awarded to Huddersfield that they won the lineout on the Wharfedale 5 metre line and after several phases Edward Barber crashed over for a try which Will Miner converted making the score 17-6.
On the stroke of half time Tom Mann converted a penalty to leave the score 17-9.

The second half saw a distinct turn in the weather to constant drizzle and Wharfedale fortunes. The introduction of Henry McNab and some forceful runs by Ben Blackwell started to cause the Huddersfield defence problems to such an extent that two players were sin binned, one for an early bath after two yellow cards.

From a drop out under the Huddersfield posts, Harry Bullough gathered and made rapid ground, passing to Ben Backwell who took two defenders out before recycling to Joe Altham to score a try, the conversion was missed by Tom Mann making the score 17-14.

So into the final quarter and all to play for, Wharfedale were unable to break down this gutsy Huddersfield side who defended tenaciously and even managed to break out and score a final penalty by Will Milner making the final score 20-14.

It was a very disappointing afternoon for the large travelling supporters of Wharfedale but full credit to Huddersfield on their second win of the season.

Simon Verbickas commented after the game:
“We have now been second on the score sheet for the last 5 games which is a very disappointing scenario. We have had a game plan for each of these games and unfortunately the barometer needle of how close we stick to it is way off at the moment and we need to learn that until we can embrace a plan as well as the ability to play what’s infront of us and combine the two we will be making games much tougher than they need to be.

"All credit to Huddersfield for the victory but we clearly left enough points out on the pitch for the end result to be totally different today and we need to learn from this”