The high winds were always going to make handling difficult and the first half was not one to remember. Conceding soft penalties in good attacking positions and lost ball in contact meant that Otley were unable to convert the first half wind advantage into points.

Kiwi referee Michael Tutti issued 3 yellow cards in total, the first in the 7th minute when Nuneaton second-row David Campton was sent to the cooler with Dan Hyde following on 20 minutes for a deemed trip.

Otley should have scored as early as the first minute. Flanker Xavier Andre charged down a clearance kick from the kick-off and then tackled the Nuneaton full-back dead-in-goal to force a 5 metre scrum in centre-field. Unfortunately, the opportunity to register an early blow was lost as the Nuns were awarded the first of five early relieving penalties.

Robin Kitching converted a penalty to register Otley's only points of a disjointed first half. The only highlight being a strong run and neat offload in the tackle by Kyle Dench which almost brought a try.

Nuneaton took a 3-5 lead into the break when full-back Rob Cook ran 80 metres after evading an uncharacteristically poor attempted tackle on his own '22 after Otley had given away possession. Nuneaton's young fly-half Rick Aley just fell short with a difficult conversion attempt into the wind.

Otley did launch one final raid in the first half and were disappointed to hear the half-time whistle having been awarded a five-metre scrum.

One area where Otley performed for the full 80 minutes was the line-out with the visitors having real problems winning their own ball which proved to be a real thorn in their side.

Having received an appropriate 'pep' talk at half time from Clegg & Luffman, Otley started the second stanza in a much more direct fashion. Powerful work from the reinvigorated forwards created the platform for centre Jon Buchanan to surge over next to the posts within 3 minutes of the re-start. Kitching added the extras and followed up soon after with a penalty to make it 13-5 to the hosts.

With the officials becoming wiser to Nuneaton's attempts to slow the play down, Otley began to exert their authority. Nuns had No.8 Ryan Banks yellow carded on 58 minutes and second row Ben Griffiths was lucky not to join him after laying over the ball right under the cross-bar.

Nuneaton's resolve continued to creak and Kitching continued his recent prolific point scoring crossing twice in the left hand corner following sweeping moves across the backline. He was cruelly denied his hat-trick when Buchanan was adjudged to have blocked off a defender in backplay. In reality it had no influence on whether or not Kitching would have scored as he had already brushed his opposite number aside and was well on his way to scoring his 3rd try.

Otley introduced all 4 replacements after 65 minutes but were unable to add the bonus point try. The best chance came when Kitching raced free once again before finding right winger Steve Parsons who was denied by a last ditch tackle.

While disappointing not to gain a bonus point, this was another important victory against determined opposition who played with great pride & passion.

Otley have a 'free date' next weekend but now look to prepare for the eagerly anticipated clash with 2nd placed Stourbridge at Stourton Park on 15 March.

Otley: Dench; Parsons, Buchanan, Whatmuff, Kitching; Shuttleworth (capt), Easterby (McCormack 65); Wederall, Steele (Sayers 65), Fullman (Turner 65); Snowball, Parr; Williams (Bland 65), Andre, Hyde

Nuneaton: Cook, Cave, Douglas, Peacock, Takarangi, Aley, Thomas, Hartland, Bray, Pickard, Campton, Griffiths, Holmes, Critchley, Banks

Referee: Michael Tutti (NZ)

MATCH STATISTICS

Otley 23

Tries: Kitching (2), Buchanan

Cons: Kitching

Pens: Kitching (3)

Nuneaton 5

Tries: Cook

Click here for photos of the match courtesy of Paul Barrett

Click here for individual league records