Old Otliensians 59 Bramley Phoenix 10

OTLIENSIANS excelled in the dry conditions to provide an entertaining afternoon of flowing rugby as they secured a comprehensive Yorkshire Three victory at Chaffers Field.

Any grievance they felt about having to play the game after it was called off in December when Bramley could not raise a team, was soon forgotten as Otliensians quickly slipped into fluent form.

After the Bramley forwards had made a couple of strong drives, the home side showed their intent. Kristian Keinhorst broke away down the right before delivering a deft chip which was gathered by his brother Nick who put centre Luke Freer in for a try. The conversion by Kristian Keinhorst made it 7-0.

From the re-start forwards Paddy Phipps and Rob Arbuckle drove well into the home 22 where quick ball allowed scrum half Rob Lofthouse to scamper through a gap to score a try which Kristian Keinhorst converted.

The visitors were struggling with the pace of the home backs and good line-out work from flankers Matt Taylor and Keiran Walker allowed the ball to go wide at every opportunity.

Good drives by prop Greg Jones, No. 8 Rob Arbuckle and lock Lee O’Donnell made big inroads before another chip ahead by Kristian Keinhorst was snapped up by Freer who went in at the corner for his second try to make it 19-0 after just 15 minutes.

Bramley at last began to put some phases together and with the help of a penalty, they made good progress into the home 22. There was an untidy line-out and as the ball bounced back over the line, a Bramley player dived on it to put his side on the scoresheet.

The home side came back with a vengeance as both forwards and backs combined to put powerful flanker Matt Taylor away for another fine try. Kristian Keinhorst’s conversion stretched the lead to

26-5.

The home side continued to dominate with good ball from the scrum through Paddy Phipps, Jim Dyson and Greg Jones. From pressure in the visitors’ 22, young prop Phipps broke away to the left from a ruck and trundled 15 yards with two Bramley players hanging on his back for a well-deserved try.

The re-start provided the opportunity for some fine running and offloading by the home backs with centre Ollie Eaves cutting through. The conversion by Keinhorst made the score 40-5 at the break.

Bramley started with more purpose in the second half and there were some good individual runs, but too often the support was not there and the tackling by the home side was solid.

Re-cycled ball was whipped out to winger Nick Keinhorst who scored in the corner and then, after some good interplay between forwards and backs, he followed this up with his second five minutes later. Kristian Keinhorst landed one conversion.

To give credit to Bramley they came back strongly and took play into the home half. Their cause was not helped when they had a player red-carded for throwing a punch, but they set up some powerful drives to go over in the corner.

Otliensians got back into their stride with some strong running and slick handling to send Eaves in for his second try with Kristian Keinhorst’s conversion rounding off the scoring with his seventh conversion from nine attempts