Saturday 6 April - Billingham v Wharfedale (A) KO 2.15pm ------- Billingham 2nd XV v Foresters (A) KO 2.15pm ------

Articles by JDriver

A match that started with a respectful silence to remember Harrogate’s faithful servant Bill Barrack and HRH Queen Elizabeth ended with Dale securing a second five-point victory. The travelling faithful were strong in number and were in good voice as Wharfedale started where they left off last week.

Early pressure saw a defensive kick being charged down in Gate’s 22 and Sam Gaudie reacted quickly to pounce on the ball for an unconverted score. More pressure from Dale reaped a couple of penalties and Tom Mann, making his first start at 10 in a League Match for Dale, soon had …

Rugby returned to the Avenue and a good crowd were treated to an eleven try festival. At times the home side played some sublime rugby. Sweeping moves that involved a host of players with good running and supporting players ready to move the play forward.

The visitors took an early lead with a Ben Pearson penalty before Wharfedale started to open up. Great play by Sam Gaudie took the ball deep into the visitor`s 22 and a penalty was awarded. A quick tap saw Matt Beesley barge over for an unconverted score. Pearson took Hoppers back into the lead with …

On a blustery windy day Wharfedale entertained Blackburn in a friendly pre-season match which would include up to 30 players for new Head Coach Simon Verbickas to assess.

The game was split into three 30 minute sessions of which Blackburn won the toss and kicked off with the slope and wind.

After sustained pressure through multiple penalties and possession, Blackburn opened the scoring with a well worked try by Jake Foster, converted by Josh Jarrod

The rest of the period was stalemate until Jake Foster crossed in the corner and Josh Jarrod converted to make the score 0 – 14.…

Pre-season friendly

Another hot day at the Avenue greeted Billingham from the North East. Wharfedale struggled to show any fluency early on and were guilty of some sloppy play and allowed the visitors to score two converted tries in the first 20 minutes to lead by 14 points. Dale then started to improve and a break by Harry Bullough and a kick ahead by James Coulton led to Bullough himself scoring. Ben Blackwell converted.

More shocking play followed by the home side and Billingham touched down again for an unconverted try to leave the score 7 – 19. Dale then …

Rugby returned to the Avenue with a double header. A good crowd enjoyed the sunshine and were entertained by first the Foresters playing Old Rishworthians and then 1st Team taking on old friends, Macclesfield. The results preseason are not the most important thing but it is important for the coaches to see players on the field against good opposition.

Macclesfield played some good rugby and, despite the score, were strong opponents. The match gave the players the chance to impress Wharfedale’s new Director of Rugby, Simon Verbickas. All players took the chance and played some superb eye-catching rugby.

Dale …

(Thank you to Fred Bullough for kindly providing this!)

To the solid band of Foresters supporters, do not be alarmed. The final score does not truly represent what you have come to expect from the Foresters normal squad of players. The Club itself were very short of players for the two matches that took part on the 6th of August and consequently it was very difficult to field two teams against the Old Rishworthians and later the first team against Macclesfield. Therefore, to even consider playing both games, several players turned out for both of the Wharfedale sides. Yes, …

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