At half-time the possibility of Otley salvaging anything from the wreckage of a lacklustre opening 40 minutes looked remote. Nevertheless, they showed their mettle to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and put their Red Rose hosts to the sword.
Playing with the slope advantage, Otley came out of the blocks quickly to re-gather the kick-off and lay siege on the hosts’ line. Unfortunately a knock on after several phases of play brought an end to this encouraging opening spell.
Otley did open up a 0-6 lead after two well-struck penalties from Simon Binns but a series of missed tackles allowed Sedgley fly-half Phil Jones to arc round and go over in the corner. Jones converted his own try and Sedgley led 7-6.
Jones extended the lead soon after with a penalty but things took a further turn for the worse when Sedgley full-back Arnold De Jager was on hand to score another soft try. Jones added the extras and Otley trailed 17-6.
A further exchange of penalties maintained the deficit at 20-9 but just before half-time, Binns added a fourth penalty to make it 20-12 and give Otley some hope.
Otley emerged after the interval a different side. Jones failed with a couple of penalty attempts but aggressive defence forced the hosts into errors and Simon Binns used possession to put his team into the right areas of the field. Front row replacements Duncan Sayers and Paul Turner also made an immediate impact as did back-rower James Tiffany.
After Sayers had snaffled a loose ball on the Sedgley 22 metre line in the middle of the field, the ball was moved to the right hand side where No.8 Maifea Maifea committed the defence before floating a well-timed pass to Steve Parsons who scorched in at the corner. Binns converted superbly from the touchline and Otley were within a point at 20-19.
Otley soon regained the lead. Scrum-half Neil Chivers seemed to be exposed on half-way after Sedgley had hacked a loose ball through but Dan Hyde was on hand to receive the pass infield. Hyde showed great vision and versatility to kick the ball into the gaping space behind the on-rushing defence. Sedgley scrum-half Chris Leck was the sweeper in defence but allowed the ball to bounce and allowed onrushing Otley winger Xavier Andre to re-gather before freeing his hands to flick a pass to Hyde who had followed up in support to receive the pass and dive over the line. Binns again converted and Otley took a commanding 20-26 lead.
Otley extended their lead to 9 points when Binns knocked over a penalty from half-way and Otley continued to grow in confidence. Danny Smith broke through down the left hand side before delivering an inside pass to the supporting Maifea who crashed over. Binns converted and Otley led 20-36 with 5 minutes remaining.
Otley, hungry for the bonus point, again laid siege to the Sedgley line and an inside pass 5 metres from the line from Binns to Parsons saw the wingman barge over for his second try. Binns made no mistake with the conversion to round off an exceptional individual and team performance which ranked alongside the post-match steak dinner kindly donated to Oscar & Co by Sedgley’s Fijian contingent – top lads!
Sedgley Park: Jager; Roko, Craig, Briers, Voortman; P Jones, Leck (Albison 70); Gazzola, Roddam (M Jones 62), De Plessis; Swart, Norris; Newton (Bennett 42), Ponton, Skurr (Naulivou 75)
Otley: Edwards (Andre 40); Parsons, Whatmuff, Mooney, Smith; Binns, Chivers; Fear (Turner 42), Steele (Sayers 50), Livesey; Williams, Whitehead (Back 68); Stockdale (Tiffany 42), Hyde, Maifea
Referee: Tim Wigglesworth (RFU)
MATCH STATISTICS
Sedgley Park 20
Tries: Jones, De Jager
Cons: Jones (2)
Pens: Jones (2)
Otley 43
Tries: Parsons (2), Hyde, Maifea
Cons: Binns (4)
Pens: Binns (5)
Oscar's Gamestar: Simon Binns
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