LONDON SCOTTISH 3 OTLEY 46

Otley were forced into making several changes to their side for the potential 'banana skin' against London One outfit London Scottish.

Chris Hyndman (illness), Simon Binns (injury), Dave Scully (playing for Classic Lions in Bermuda), Steve Trethewey (Army Duty), Mark Luffman (injury) and Nathan Bland (unavailable) were all absent from the squad that travelled to Plymouth while prop Justin Wring was still not quite ready to return.

Otley applied early pressure and were soon 13-0 ahead thanks to two penalties from Ian Shuttleworth and a try by scrum-half Andy Brown that was also converted by Shuttleworth.

The build up to the try started in Otley's own half where centre Paul Mooney fielded a clearance kick before searing through the middle of the park on an elusive run. He passed onto supporting No.8 Glen Wilson who in turn fed Brown to outpace the cover and score in the right hand corner.

Scottish registered their sole score of the match when fly-half Jerry Costello converted a penalty from his second attempt having missed an easy earlier chance.

Otley were soon back in control and a cynical pieced of play at a ruck under their own posts by Scottish resulted in a Penalty Try being awarded to Otley. Shuttleworth made no mistake with the straightforward conversion and Otley led 20-3.

The scoreline remained unchanged until half-time but Scottish spent the last 10 minutes of the first half hammering away at the Otley line. The Otley cause had not been helped by two sin-binnings within the space of 2 minutes to prop Ben Fear and winger Waisale Sovatabua. Despite being down to 13 men, Otley defended valiantly to prevent the hosts from scoring.

Otley proved to be even more dominant in the second half, running in a further 4 tries, 3 of which were converted by Shuttleworth.

Firstly, winger Robin "DJ" Kitching raced in down the right had touchline following 2 quick wide balls along the backline and then replacement flanker James Tiffany was on hand to collect a Brown offload after the scrum-half had snaffled a loose ball.

Sovatabua then created a try in the left hand corner for centre Rob Whatmuff after a sublime reverse flick pass. Shuttleworth narrowly missed with the conversion to prevent him registering a 100% strike rate for the afternoon.

Otley then wrapped things up in the final stages when hooker Ben Steele showed good strength to barge his way over on the blindside.

All in all, a good hit out for the 'All Blacks' and Otley stayed on course for a trip to Twickenham. Fingers crossed for a good HOME draw in the last 16 - probably drop on Redruth away now I've said that!

Second row Paul Williams followed up a strong display at Plymouth with another aggresive performance at London Scottish - he worked hard throughout and his ball carrying along with that of Glen Wilson was a constant threat to the home defence.

Rob Whatmuff produced another tough, power-packed performance in the middle and earned the hosts 'Whyte & Mackay' sponsored Man of the Match award.

Otley: Rock (Duckett 60), Kitching, Whatmuff, Mooney, Sovatabua (Monks 60), Shuttleworth, Brown, Fear (Walker 55), Sayers (Steele 55), Fullman, Oakes (Tiffany 55), Williams, Connor, Stockdale (Pike 55), Wilson (capt)

Referee: Terry Hall (RFU)

MATCH STATISTICS

London Scottish 3

Pens: Costello

Otley 46

Tries: Brown, Penalty, Kitching, Tiffany, Whatmuff, Steele

Cons: Shuttleworth (5)

Pens: Shuttleworth (2)

Oscar's Man of the Match: Paul Williams