OTLEY put on a scintillating home display on Saturday, to defeat Sandal by an eye catching scoreline of 73-7.

The hosts kicked off the fixture and within three minutes were on the scoreboard.

With the ball on their 1ten metre line, they moved forward, passing it to Marcus Law who outpaced the opposition along the line before coming in to score, Joe Rowntree adding the conversion.

For the next twenty minutes, the home side found themselves virtually stuck in their own half after a string of penalties were awarded to the away side, and they were lucky not to incur a yellow card. Although Sandal pressed, they were unable to find a way through Otley’s defence.

Having finally got out of their own half, Otley reached Sandal’s red zone and, from the left hand corner, they worked the ball across the pitch for Law to get his second in the opposite side. Having collected the restart, Otley moved the ball across their 22, before Ben Magee went forward, passing the ball to Henry Roberts just inside Sandal’s half who then ran down the left-hand touchline to score.

Otley got their bonus point after a scrum in their own half, the ball going through the hands before their wingers combined for Law go over for his third. Shortly afterwards, Sandal went down to 14 men after Scott MacGregor was shown a yellow card.

The half-time whistle blew and was 28-0 to the hosts.

Within 90 seconds of the restart, from inside his ten metre line, Ben Magee ran the remainder of the pitch to score. Two minutes later and after a spell of ping-pong, he did the same thing again although this time from his 22, Rowntree adding both conversions.

Otley’s Dan Preston-Routledge caught the restart which started a relentless move upfield, forwards and backs combining with Elliot Morgan finishing off a great team move touching down in the scoreboard corner after 45 minutes. Otley’s eight try came after a Sandal attack had broken down on Otley’s 22 with Magee and Law doing the legwork, and Law giving the ball to Ben Waddington over the try line for the No 7 to score.

It didn’t take Law long to get on the scoreboard again, from a line-out in the Sandal half and with Law calling for the ball, Jack Mackie’s kick over the Sandal defence found Law and he had an easy run to the line. Five minutes later, from inside the Otley 22 Law and Roberts combined again to give Lewis Cooper a 15 metre run-in to Sandal’s line for his first league try for the club.

Law capped a wonderful performance with ten minutes to go, taking the ball just outside his 22, chipping Sandal’s winger in their half before weaving his way to the posts. Rowntree’s conversion brought his tally to nine.

Determined to avoid a ‘nilling’, Sandal kept Otley in their half for the remainder of the game choosing to pick and go rather than go for the line when Otley infringed. With Otley down to 13, Waddington and Preston-Routledge having received yellows and Sandal on Otley’s line, the pressure finally told and Ryan Gibson was able to force his way over. Scott MacGregor’s conversion heralded the end of the game.

After the game, Kyle Dench, Otley’s head coach was obviously pleased with the result, saying :“To a man we have stepped up and looked after each.

"You can see this in our performances and with some big games coming up, we will keep pushing each other to improve."                       Report by:Nick Doyle