LAST Saturday, Otliensians hosted South Yorkshire’s Knottingley RUFC, for what was expected to be the first real test of the season.

Back in the 2019/20 season, when the teams last met, ‘Knotts’ had an athletic mobile pack, causing ‘Ensians problems, both home and away, each team enjoying a marginal victory only in their home fixtures.

Dropping into Yorkshire Four has obviously been a challenge for Knottingley, winning only one game to date. Consequently, Otliensians approached the game with conviction, and perhaps with some old scores to settle.

Within seconds of the kick off speedy winger, Will Haworth found himself in possession and dashed down the left wing. Unfortunately, due to his success last season, Howarth is now a ‘marked man’, with most teams making it part of their pre-match strategy to keep him well marshalled.

He made it as far as the 5m line when a barrage of defenders smothered his approach. Luckily the ball was quickly recycled out to Will Cooper, who deftly ‘grubbered’ the ball through the opposition centres, for right wing Declan Jackson to gather and ground, scoring the first of his five tries.

‘Ensians dominated the first half racking up 28 points by the midway point.

The second half was plagued with handling errors, as the drizzle turned to rain, but the home side kept up the pressure throughout. Further tries were scored by Jake Bentley, after a fabulous piece of individual skill, jinking his way through the Knotts defence from the halfway line to score. Will Howarth also added an effort of his own.

Captain Sam Featherstone also chalked up five points, with a dive into the corner, following a repeated phase attack.

Despite being outplayed in most areas of the game, Knottingley really should have walked away with some points.

If the current World Cup is anything to go by, the importance of keeping the score board ‘ticking over’ is clear. The visitors wasted at least five penalties in the second half, in areas of the pitch that could have been kicked at goal, or at least kicked for an advantageous line out.

Instead, their dogmatic captain, opted for a scrum every time. This proved very little, as ‘Ensians matched them well. Sadly, the result for the visitors was a few minutes of wasted time and zero points to their name.

At full time with eight tried scores and only two conversions missed, Otliensians’ well deserved 52 points (52-0) helped them move up the table to 2nd place. Next Saturday’s game away at, 4th place, Leeds Modernians, is set to be the next challenge.