Hemsworth10 Old Otliensians 27

OTLIENSIANS continued their winning start to the season at a venue where they have encountered problems in the past.

The home team are adept at exploiting their fairly narrow sloping pitch and were soon exerting pressure.

Solid defence and a good relieving kick by Nick Keinhorst repelled the early advances.

Otliensians gradually got a foothold in the game with Connor Bateman rattling a post with a penalty.

Skipper Sam Featherstone was winning good line-out ball for his side, but it was Hemsworth who took the lead with a penalty after 25 minutes.

Much of the play took place in the visitors' 22 with the home team using their big forwards to attempt to crash through the defence as they utilised the slope of the pitch

Hemsworth were kept at bay by stout defence with the help of relieving kicks by Tobias Gill and Luke Cowdell.

Two penalties from the boot of Connor Bateman enabled Otliensians to edge ahead, but Hemsworth hit back before the break with the game's first try which they converted too go 10-6 up.

The visitors started the second half in convincing fashion despite heavy rain making handling difficult.

A neat chip by Ollie Eaves was continued in a clever fashion by Nick Keinhorst who kept the ball in play and dived over to score a great try which was converted by Bateman.

Will Cooper went close to scoring after charging down a kick, but Otliensians had to wait until the final ten minutes to make victory safe.

Cooper collected good ball and gave a fine pass to Alistair Booth who broke the defence to dive over the line for a try which was converted by Bateman.

Hemsworth were tiring noticeably and the visitors' scrum was pushing them backwards.

The pressure was rewarded when Gill scored a try which Bateman again converted to round off a satisfactory afternoon for Otliensians.