Wharfedale 12 Old Albanians 15: Solomi try is scant bonus consolation

Even the large travelling Old Albanians following could not believe that this match had not been settled in the home side’s favour by half-time.

Even visiting player-coach, fly-half James Shanahan, admitted that Wharfedale should have had a try-scoring bonus point by half-time.

However, it was not until shortly after the break that Wharfedale crossed the line.

Peter Lucock’s simple try, through the gaping centre of the visitors’ defence, looked like it was going to be the first of many.

The visitors’ midfield had been as porous as any seen at the Avenue this season, with Woodhead, Barrett, Donkin, Lucock and Whaites making repeated breaks, only for the final pass to be dropped or go astray.

As early as the second minute, the ball had been knocked on with the line at the player’s mercy, and other chances were wasted up to the break.

Conceding the lead at the start of the second half, however, seemed to galvanise Old Albanians and an immediate penalty put them on the scoreboard.

Wharfedale had already lost playmaker Barrett to a hamstring injury at the end of the first quarter and when Donkin followed him on the hour-mark, Wharfedale’s creative edge had gone .

With the visitors gaining in confidence, the home side’s ambitions were restricted to defending their line.

The match turned when the Greens lost control of the ball at the back of a scrum and Albanians hacked on and applied a long period of pressure, during which, with only 13 minutes left, replacement scrum-half Gough was awarded a yellow card for a technical offence.

In his absence, centre Lombaard and scrum-half Liebenberg scored simple tries.

The now desperate Wharfedale supporters urged their favourites on as the clock ran down, and were ultimately rewarded with a bonus point when Dan Solomi outran the defence on the left to score in the corner.