Burley vs. Old Otliensians 10/03/07
Burley took the short trip to Otley to take on Yorkshire Division 4 front runners Old Otliensians in the second round of the Yorkshire Silver Trophy. The visitors buoyed by their League Championship were anticipating a tough test against one of the better sides of Yorkshire 4.
Without key forwards, Richard Schmidt and Dan Johnson, Burley started confidently taking on the much bigger Otley pack. With good drives by unsung No 8 Paul Pinder, and Flankers Ritchie Christie and James Palfrey-Smith the home side gave away a penalty, slotted over by Ritchie Parrish.
Otley came back their big pack putting pressure on the Burley eight, and from a series of drives their aptly named Wing Forward Arbuckle ran in from 15m to touch down.
A further Parrish penalty nudged Burley ahead. The Kirkstall men were competing well against their higher placed opponents and an attack inside the Otley half put them further ahead.
In form Centre Andrew Bissett got on the outside of his opposite number Jon Ratahi and stepping inside the multi tattooed Full Back scored a superb try.
With Otley now stung by their lively opponents, they launched an attack inside their own half but came up against a determined defence and spilled the ball in midfield; Bissett hacked through and in a race to the line touched down for what looked like a perfectly good try, only to be disallowed by the referee.
Some of the home forwards were now getting over robust, and a lack of discipline resulted in the Otley Captain (showing how not to lead a side) being yellow carded.
With Half Time approaching Otley scored a further try by their hard working No 8 making the score at the break 11-10 to an impressive Burley.
With the wind now behind them Otley were playing the game in their opponents half, but the Burley defence was strong, on 60mins.,however Otliensians Centre Ratahi received the ball 15m out, shrugging off two attempted tackles he touched down by the posts. With the try converted Burley were now behind 17-11. More pressure from Otley sucked in the Burley midfield creating an overlap for the Winger to stroll in at the corner. A further Otley penalty finalised the scoring.
In a last throw of the dice Burley fetched on the fresh legs of Jim Griffin, Jamie Ferguson and Martin O Connor but time had run out. A final score line of 25-11.A valiant effort by a hardworking Burley side but beaten by bigger and stronger opponents.
This will be the standard of opposition next season, and with 22 League games and a minimum of 2 Cup games, total commitment, and availability of players will be necessary if we are to compete at this level, in addition to a well formulated recruitment drive.