Otley 29, Sandal 13

OTLEY celebrated the inauguration of the Nigel Melville Suite – named after their former scrum half and England captain – in style with a fine display.

They got the scoreboard rolling as early as the fourth minute of the National League Two North game when Neil Chivers took a pass from a line-out to break into the open, passing to James White, who caught the ball at pace to make the line.

Sandal hit back after 10 minutes when fly half Greg Wood, a former Yorkshire wicketkeeper who played cricket in the Bradford League for East Bierley, landed a 40-metre penalty.

For the next 20 minutes, Otley had the possession and territory but a stubborn Sandal defence refused to yield.

It took a penalty kicked to touch to open the door. Otley gathered the ball from the line-out and moved it across the pitch, allowing winger James Wood to score for Nick Coupland to add the conversion.

Buoyed by their success, Otley took their eye off the ball at the restart and gave away a penalty, which Wood converted to reduce the deficit.

To their credit, Otley upped their game again and it was Sandal's turn to be penalised – for not rolling away.

The penalty was kicked downfield into touch and Tom O'Donnell passed the line-out ball to Chivers, who in turn got it to Mike Coady.

He made a dash for the line and was tackled just short but still managed to recycle the ball to allow Henry Roberts to go over.

Otley were playing with confidence – perhaps a little too much as a wild pass was intercepted just before half-time and fed to David Martin, who went in at the posts at the scratching shed end, giving Wood an easy conversion to make it 19-13.

Now running the game and taking control of the scrum, Otley added two more tries in the second half.

Chivers opened up the visitors' defence after a scrum and, after a series of passes, Roberts scored his second try. Then on the hour mark, Wood scored his second try after two penalties were put into the clubhouse, the forwards giving him sufficient space to go over.

Director of rugby Peter Clegg was pleased at his side's performance, given what had happened to them in their three previous games.

He was particularly happy with his new half-back pairing of Chivers and Coupland, who kept the momentum going throughout the game.

With other players starting to return from injury, the outlook for 2016 looks good for sixth-placed Otley as competition for starting places grows.