A bumper festive crowd of 5,310 witnessed a fantastic start to proceedings by visitors. Returning centre Rob Whatmuff latched onto a well-weighted chip kick by fly-half Ian Shuttleworth that took Otley deep into the Tykes half.

In the following waves of attack, winger Ollie Phillips (on loan from Newcastle Falcons) showed why he is still part of a Premiership squad as he burst clear down the right only to be denied by a last ditch tackle.

Otley did not leave empty handed as Leeds strayed offside and Andy Brown converted a simple penalty kick to make it 0-3.

Scrum half Andy Brown created further mayhem in the Tykes ranks with clever probing kicks but unfortunately was unable to convert another penalty which would have made it 0-6.

Tykes were struggling to make an impression with aimless kicking and a lack of guile and threat from anywhere outside the Otley 22. Indeed, they relied heavily on inside centre Andy Tuilagi to crash the ball up the middle.

Leeds scored their first try following a series of penalties which culminated in a scrum five metres out. Scrum-half Darren Edwards switched play to the blindside and right winger Chris Hughes was presented with a walk-in. Former Cas Tiger Jonny Hepworth failed to add the extras to leave it 5-3 to the Tykes after 20 minutes.

Otley continued to thwart Leeds for the remainder of the first half with Otley's Dan Hyde dominating proceedings in the forwards. On loan second row Sean Tomes was also impressing in the line-out and used his significant bulk to good effect around the park.

Leeds knew they were in a tussle and opted to kick a penalty to make it 8-3 after 35 minutes.

Shortly before the interval Otley were badly done to when centre Kyle Dench was sin binned but Tuilagi went unpunished after throwing a blatant punch in retaliation. Vasey missed with the attempt at goal.

Phillips pulled off the first of two fine try saving tackles on the stroke of half time as he denied Leeds lock Kearnan Myall at the corner flag.

Phillips followed this up early in the second half as he thwarted opposite number John Holtby again in the corner. Phillips left the field with a blood injury but soon returned.

With Otley still down to 14 men, Leeds benefitted as former Otley player Tom Rock was put through a large hole to score. Vasey converted to make it 15-3.

Vasey added a second penalty after 54 minutes to make it 18-3 but then it was the Tykes turn to lose a man when replacement second row Pelu Taele was sent to the sin bin for a high tackle.

However, his absence did not effect the Tykes as the visitors started to show signs of fatigue. A cross field kick behind a stretched Otley defence allowed Vasey to score but he missed the conversion to leave the score at 23-3.

Otley continued to show a great aptitude for running rugby and were rewarded when scoring the best try of the match. Phillips started the move on the Otley 22 and showed good footwork and speed to evade a clutch of defenders before releasing left winger Danny Smith down the flank. Smith in turn demonstrated his pace as he veered infield towards the posts. Quick ball enabled Hyde and Dench to combine before skipper Ian Shuttleworth was on hand to take the final pace and outpace the covering defence at the corner. Replacement Owen Edwards narrowly missed the conversion to leave the score 23-8 to the Tykes.

Leeds clinched a bonus point in the closing stages as Tuilagi ran onto a marginal pass before going over under the posts. Vasey converted to make the final score 30-8 but Otley could be proud of their efforts and will look forward to locking horns with the Tykes at Cross Green later in the season.

Leeds Tykes: Welding (Vasey 20), Hughes, Rock, Tuilagi, Holtby, Hepworth, Edwards (Rauluni 70), MacDonald, Rawlinson, Noon, Hooper (capt), Myall, Bryan (Dunbar 60), Schusterman, Oakley

Otley: Monks, Phillips, Dench, Whatmuff (Pattison 60), Smith, Shuttleworth (capt), Brown (Chivers 65), Turner (Livesey 65), Sayers (Steele 60), Barretto, Parr, Tomes, Tiffany, Hyde, Stockdale

Referee: R Kitt (RFU)

MATCH STATISTICS

Leeds Tykes 30

Tries: Hughes, Rock, Vasey, Tuilagi

Cons: Vasey (2)

Pens: Vasey (2)

Otley 8

Tries: Shuttleworth

Pens: Brown

Oscar's Gamestar: Ollie Phillips

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