3rd October 2009

Pontefract Pythons   22  -  Wibsey   5

Man of the match - Gav Wright

Scorers - Tries Wright Brown Banfield &D Armstrong Con D.Armstrong

Yorkshire Division Five Pontefract Pythons 22 Wibsey 5 Pythons scored their first victory of the season with a fine display despite the high winds making attractive rugby difficult. The home sides rebuilding, after a summer of retirements due to injury, continues and the new sides mix of age and experience and youth and vigour seems to be coming together at last. The windy conditions meant that this would be a forwards dominant game and John Trevorrow , Kev Day and Ashley Bradshaw were outstanding in the scrum whilst as ever John Swift and Simon Bickerdike put in a non stop tackling performance. Number eight and man of the match Gavin Wright was a constant thorn in Wibseys side with his forceful runs from the base of the scrum and it was from one of these runs that he romped over to open the scoring. Despite the difficult conditions the backs also produced some fine attacking rugby with Scrum half Oskar Gurtlar providing good possession and Stand off Neil Williams putting in a vintage display. Luke Banfield is fast becoming a star of the future and had his best game in Pythons colours so far and was unlucky not to score after a searing run from his own half but capped of a fine performance when Andy Walker put him over for a fine try later. The visitors were game opponents but couldn’t break down the pythons solid defence and the home side dominated the forwards exchanges. It was no surprise therefore when after a series of forward drives Dave Brown forced his way over for a try from short range. Impressive full back Dave Armstrong added a further try and an excellent conversion to extend the lead before Wibsey scored a late consolation. Substitutes Ian Holland and Declan O’Mullane added some steel in defence to prevent any sustained fightback and The Pythons sealed a fine win with aperiod of sustained pressure with both Mick Wassell and O’Mullane going close.

.

.

.

Report by flatcapper