The sunshine brought out the crowds (over 600) at the Avenue and they were treated to some excellent flowing rugby.
Wharfedale had the better of the early exchanges but mistakes stopped them advancing into the opposition 22. The visitors then opened the scoring with an intercept try after 12 minutes by Luke Wilson who ran in from his own 10-metre line.
Dale started to put on pressure from the restart and Billingham were forced to clear for a Dale lineout outside the visitor’s 22. The ball was secured and a break by Oliver Cicognini down the middle was followed up with quick recycled ball and Bradley Viner charging up to the line. This led to play close to the Billingham line by the Wharfedale pack and Ollie Riddiough darted over for a try, converted by Robbie Davidson.
Wharfedale started playing some more accurate rugby. The Billingham restart was sent downfield and good following up by Rian Hamilton forced a knock-on and gave Wharfedale a scrum on Billingham’s 10-metre line. The scrum efficiently won and with the ball flowing along the backs, through the hands of Riddiough, Hamilton and Harry Bullough, Bradley Viner scored in the right corner. An excellent conversion followed by Davidson to leave the score at 14 – 5 at half time as the rest of the 1st half was full of mistakes by both sides with neither side being able to get close to scoring.
After an early attack by Billingham which found them with an attacking lineout it was more strong play by the Wharfedale pack which was followed by good play by the backs. A blistering break by Josh Prell was offloaded to Rian Hamilton for an unconverted try.
Two more good runs by Viner led to a penalty and 5-metre line for Dale. Dale’s fourth, bonus-point, try was a result of clever play from the lineout. Billingham did not contest but Elliot Stockton kept the ball at the front and was rumbled over for the score, Davidson was again accurate from the tee.
Confidence was showing in the backs and Hamilton was set up for his second try and Harry Bullough scored after more good handling. Davidson converted both to take the score to 40 points to 5. Hamilton’s try saw forwards and backs combining and going coast to coast with movement that the Billingham defence could not cover. Bullough’s touch down was the result of simple rugby with Davidson looping round to create the extra man.
Fair play to Billingham who ran in a couple of tries by Jamie Lane to give their travelling support something to talk about. Lane’s first try was clever as the ref had given the shout “penalty advantage”. He looked at the ref and as soon as the whistle was blown he was off through the Wharfedale pack to score. His second try also showed good reaction as the ball was messed up in midfield by Dale and he was quick to pounce on the loose ball.
Josh Burridge, who has now played 200 matches for Wharfedale and celebrated his 30th birthday the day before the match said after the game “That was a good win. We played some accurate and effective rugby built on a solid performance by the pack. Our recycling was quick which gave our backs time and space to run at the opposition”.
Wharfedale: – Bullough; Viner (Stockton 64), Prell, Cicognini, Hamilton; Davidson (Burridge 70), Riddiough (Cox 40); Dickinson (Meehan 50), Stockdale (Collinson 60), Armstrong (Dickinson 70), Stockton (Borrill 63), Hedgley (c), Burridge (Weston 40), Markey, Beresford.