By Eck, we made it! to the lovely setting of Wharfdale set in the Yorkshire dales for the 1^st of 4 matches of our 2009 tour, with overcast skies & a right proper breeze, we kicked off, both sides testing each other & getting bogged down in mid field. Winning the ball, our forwards feed Marcus Jones to create a blind side surge, out to Louis Rawlings who switched back only to be stopped, our forwards win it back for Rawlings to place try # 1. Wharfdale get our measure, break through the centre, only as far as Jones who stood his ground until he took the hit, they careered onto to our try line, Ollie Dakin barged his way into the ruck knicking the ball back & out to a waiting Matthew Holl to break back, only to be stopped again. A relentless attack by Wharfdale had Robbie Zhao & Jonno Bailey scrapping like pit bulls for the ball, Wharfdale break out, but are stopped by a fearless Sam Nery, they keep us pinned on our 22, with our scrum holding firm, they break again, Calam Beasley puts in a key & thundering tackle, loose ball scooped by Ryan Headington for a great break to their 22, popping to Holl to go over & place try # 2. (At least this what I am told happened, as we were trying to figure out why the ref fell over) They attack again, Nery blocking his man, the ball goes wild, Zhao takes the intercept, but is stopped, Fin Brown takes the pass & mauls 20 mtrs for Bryn Kendrick Jones to go for the line, held off, he off loads to Rawlings for his 2^nd & our try # 3. Wharfdale, undaunted come straight back, through the middle & fight their way to place & convert their opening try, just before the whistle.

Ready for more ping pong attacks, Wharfdale turn our scrum & break, although he’s slight in frame, in his head he’s huge, Sam Behagg stops the rot with a block tackle, but Wharfdale keep bogging down the ball & creep to our 5 mtr, we loose the scrum again, they go blind, switch to open, confuse our defence to place & convert try # 2. Newly subbed Sean Cooper provide fresh legs in supporting the forwards in pushing up field to the 22, the next scrum & line out are lost, Cooper steals from the ruck & is turned over, literally by a big Yorkshire lump, they creep back to our line, Cooper intercepts, chips & flits around the defence, tackles the taker for his ball, only to be stopped, Wharfdale break back, through the centre again for converted try # 3. Now ahead, Wharfdale attack again all the way to our try line, we defend valiantly, their relentless pressure eventually yields the reward, try # 4, conversion missed. True to form, Cambridge crack on, with time running out & a win still in our grasp, Headington gets the ball jinks, twists & hands off to get past the defence, Toby Hackett as wingman tries to grab the hassled pass, but it spills, frustratingly right on the line in front of the posts, sniffing the win, Wharfdale go for ball, bog it down & win, a close fought, nail biting match between 2 well matched teams whose sportsmanship was a credit to all, well done Wharfdale, we’ll see you in Cambridge! 

Try Scorers:-

Louis Rawlings x 2, Matthew Holl

Conversions:-

Ryan Headington 0 from 3 attempts