Beverley RUFC match report away at Hullensians RUFC - 15th Oct 22

Beverley needed to stop the rot having started well with three wins this season, but the two following defeats were close affairs but indicative of a team underperforming, and a tricky trip to Hull to play Hullensians in the local derby was to prove to be too big a challenge, crashing to their third consecutive defeat. To the delight of the home fans and players Beverley were beaten by a team that just wanted it more on the day, final score Hullensians 50 – 36 Beverley.

In periods Beverley showed what they can do with the ball if indeed they get it, after an early try for the home team which looked onerous, Beverley then proceeded to look majestic for the next 15 minutes scoring three consecutive tries all of which were converted by captain Rob Smith. The first try for Beverley came from Lewis Szrama at close quarters battling hard to push over the line, two minutes later Luke Hazell made a fantastic break and then offloaded to the speedster Jake Boardman who finished under the posts from 50m, and then five minutes after that from a central scrum Dan Lee showed great footwork to dance under the posts, and the signs looked onerous for the home team, 7 – 21.

This was an entertaining game of rugby, but too often both teams made mistakes and Beverley's inability to make good tackles in a coordinated defensive line meant that the home team were able to get back into the game on 26 minutes after Dan Lee had been yellow carded for a deemed deliberate knock-on, well converted, and then eight minutes later Hullensians scored their third try, again taking advantage of the scrum-half being off the pitch, but this time unconverted. At the half-time whistle the score was 19 – 21.

Two minutes into the second half and early Beverley pressure was rewarded, the referee awarding a penalty try as Lewis Szrama was held up illegally over the try line easily converted by Smith, 19 – 28, but the pendulum had swung back in favour of Beverley for the last time. On 50 minutes Beverley let the home team get back into the game, again poor tackling the two consecutive tries in five minutes, one of which was converted, and the lead moved back to Hullensians, 31-28 and the wind was in their sails. On 60 minutes Beverley failed to secure their own ball at the breakdown and unchallenged there inside centre picked it up and ran 40m to dot down under the posts, 38 – 28.

Rob Smith tried to stem the tide by converting a penalty five minutes later but again Beverley capitulated and gave opportunity in open play to the home team to romp over for two more tries only one of which was converted, making the score line 50 – 31 and the game was all but done, other than a quite brilliant last move of the game from Jake Boardman (who looked dangerous whenever he got the ball) kicking and chasing his own ball, gathered and ran another 20m and offloaded to Louis Butler to score in the corner. Final score 50 – 36.

Beverley played better than they have in the previous two games in patches, and there were notable performances by Aiden Calvert, Dan Lee and Rob Smith and a man of the match performance from Jack Dixon, new to the team and giving his heart and soul. The coaching team were clearly disappointed with the result and the performance, but we need to dust ourselves down and face Keighley at home next week.

Brian Gilbert