Old Otliensians 48 Skipton 25

WILL Cooper played a starring role as he scored a stunning try and landed kicks galore to help already-promoted Old Otliensians down Skipton in a rearranged home game.

It was Skipton who drew first blood though. Confusion in the 'Ensians defence saw them pounce on a loose ball and burst through for the opening score, an unconverted try.

'Ensians then took the initiative on 24 minutes with a fine move. The ball was passed from one wing to the other, where winger Luke Cowdell made good ground before cutting inside and passing to Olly Eaves.

He sliced through the grasping Skipton defence to score between the posts. Cooper converted that and he also scored a penalty four minutes later to give the home team a 10-5 lead.

The Skipton defence held firm thereafter and they kicked a great penalty from 40 metres on the brink of half-time to reduce the deficit to 10-8.

'Ensians opened the second half with increased vigour and a clever back pass to Joe Armitage enabled him to crash over for a try, which was converted by Cooper just four minutes after the restart.

Cowdell soon hammered his way over to score and Cooper added the extras to make it 24-8. Not to be outdone though, Skipton broke through the home defence to score an unconverted try.

'Ensians then scored the try of the match. The ball was fed to Cooper, who scythed through the Skipton defence with a superb 35-metre run to touch down.

He finally missed a conversion and Skipton soon stormed over the line for a converted try, to bring the score back to 29-20.

The home side responded quickly though and after 25 minutes of the half, Armitage forced his way over from a tap penalty. Cooper converted to make it 36-20.

Five minutes later, Matt Taylor dived over for an unconverted try. Skipton quickly came back though and powered over for an unconverted try, giving them the bonus point which virtually ensured their safety from relegation.

In injury-time, winger Nick Hesketh sprinted over for the final try of the game. That was followed by a brilliant conversion by Cooper to make the final score 48-25 in favour of Otliensians.

'Ensians will go to Twickenham next week for the final of the National RFU Junior Vase against South Molton in good form with no selection worries.