Physical hardly begins to describe this game and having watched the first league encounter at Brinkburn in October it was hardly surprising. Fortunately things settled down a bit in the second half and bar a blatant punch on Aaron Myers a little bit of rugby was on show for the paying spectators.

Beverley opened the scoring inside 5 minutes with a try from winger Cuozzo but Paul Moss reduced the deficit three minutes later with a well struck penalty and put West in front with another shot after 16 minutes play.

Things started to heat up and neither side were really dominating the other. West were, as usual, looking to spread the ball wide but were hampered by some poor handling. With Sawyer and Hopa despatched to the sin-bin after a bust up Moss and Archibald traded penalty misses before things started to get out of hand.

With Beverley attacking inside the 22 an off the ball wrestling match between Chocky Davies and Beverley centre Riby began near the touchline. With the home touch-judge stepping in to try and separate the pair Riby appeared to issue a nasty kick to the head of Davies and then needed restraining by his captain as the referee spoke with both players. It seemed the only solution would be to send both players to the sin-bin but astonishingly London referee Mike Beech decided to leave both players on the field, Riby clearly still furious about whatever had occurred to start things off. Archibold restored his side's lead with a penalty to make it 8-6 and Beverley mounted a further attack. When Riby flew into a ruck close to the line he met up with Anth Carr and accused of gouging, the prop was shown a red card despite the fact both players were moving at the time making a gouge seem very unlikely. The reaction of players and fans at Beaver Park was a disappointing sight and there was less of a cheer moments later when Archibald added another penalty and Anthony Posa went in for a try, ghosting through a non-existent West defence, desperate for the half-time whistle so they could re-group.

16-6 was probably not a fair reflection of the game at half-time and despite a few stern words from Dave Stubbs West looked to be collapsing as Worrall dove in for a score from a tap penalty just 5 minutes into the second period and the visitors seemed to be staring down the proverbial barrel. But they came back well an some good recycling of the ball advanced play into the 22 and Moss slotted his third penalty to keep West in touch at 21-9. They kept pressing and with 62 minutes gone Chris Lambert went over for a try after more good retention made space out wide for the youngster to finish well. The home side were clearly rocked by the comeback and only one score now separated the sides.

Beverley managed to launch their first attack for some time though, and when some strong defence held things up on the 22 Archibald had a speculative try at a drop goal which some how found its way over and gave the Yorkshiremen the crucial score.

Two scores down West were finally out of it but it needn't be all doom and gloom in the post match reflections. If this is the best team in the league we came close to beating them with 14 men on their own patch. Certainly a valiant effort. Darlington next week will provide an entirely different proposition and another opportunity to test how far we've come in the last few months.

West: Thomas, Lambert, Edwards, Hodgson, Todd, Moss (Wallis), Tighe, Carr, Sawyer, Robinson, Rudd, Davies, D Boatman (Myers), Tones (Cullinane), J Boatman

Try: Lambert
Pens: Moss 3

Beverley: P Clappison, Cuozzo, Riby, Henderson, Pickering, Posa, Archibald, I Clappison, Jones, Savage, Hopa, Hancock, Cross, Worrall, Mackay

Tries: Cuozzo, Posa, Worrall
Pens: Archibald 2
DG: Archibald

Referee: Mike Beech (London Society)