Wharfedale 17 Otley 13: Horsfall to the rescue as Greens edge out local rivals

These two North Yorkshire rivals have contrived in recent meetings to produce one-sided contests, and although this one may not be remembered for its quality, it had everyone on the edge of their seats, or like this reporter, leaning dangerously over the pitch-side handrailing.

Otley, having repeatedly squandered territory with misplaced passes and naive decision-making, had forced their opponents into a drastic rearguard action to preserve their four-point advantage, earned through two second-half penalties by Tom Davidson.

The men in black were down to 14 men with Robert Afoa-Peterson in the sin-bin, but still they came.

In a succession of thrusts that lasted the final six minutes of the game Curtis Wilson was brilliantly held up on the line and then Richard Beck thought he had grounded the ball over the whitewash only for the referee to deem otherwise.

And then from a final move that began with Stephen Depledge and crossed the breadth of the wide Threshfields surface, Wilson again pounced for the line only for the green-shirted Simon Horsfall to emerge through the haze to thwart him.

Horsfall had scored Wharfedale's only try of the game, a brilliant individual effort in the first-half, but his contribution at the death was equally important.

The referee's whistle sparked celebrations in the main stand and applause from every corner of this picturesque ground tucked away in the valley of the Yorkshire Dales.

"Richard Beck was adament he scored a try at the end," fumed Otley's director of rugby Gary Walker, for whom sightseeing was not high on his afternoon agenda.

"But like last week the referee's decision went against us," he added in reference to the opening weekend's similarly narrow defeat to Blaydon, and with respect for the game's officials.

He was rightly proud though of his side's performance in a game that began and ended in bright sunshine, but was punctuated by a heavy shower that had North Yorkshire's rugby fans dashing for cover.

"Relieved is the word," countered Wharfe's new head coach Tommy McGee, who despite overseeing two wins, concedes his side are nowhere near what he expects of them.

"Either team didn't play particularly well.

"We didn't manage the game well enough.

"There were two positives, one is the result, one is that we move forward into the next round of the Yorkshire Cup."

The fixture doubled up as a county cup contest with the hosts advancing to the second round in the defence of the title they won back in May.

But National One points are more precious and despite establishing an 11-6 advantage at the break, Wharfedale were thanking their lucky stars.

Otley should have been out of sight. Three times they exposed weakness in the home backline but on two occasions Will Nelson's final ball to James Twomey was woefully short and then James White also failed to find Twomey when the winger had broad acres to run into.

Davidson and visiting fly-half Jervis Manapenu shared two penalties apiece in a difficult wind before Horsfall cut free of a tight contest with a stunning try.

Setting off from a central position he darted to his more natural left wing past two would-be tacklers and then chipped the ball over the last man before dashing to the line to score.

Otley, though, responded after the break and their cause was aided on 44 minutes when Davidson was sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on.

They began to bang on the Wharfedale door that was guarded so purposefully by Richard Rhodes, David Hughes, Dan Solomi and the beehive-haired Talite Vaioleti.

After seven minutes of pressure, Otley captain Jamie Sutton knocked down the door to touch down, Manapenu's excellent touchline conversion just dropping over the bar to give the visitors the lead.

Back came Wharfedale with two penalties from the returning Davidson, but the one he missed in between meant that Otley needed just one try to snatch victory.

Their chances looked over when Afou-Peterson was sin-binned for a high tackle, but commendably, with local bragging rights meaning much around these parts, they produced a gallant effort that was thwarted by their deficiencies at the linout and an equally-determined Green machine, much to the appreciation of the crowd.

Wharfedale: Whaites, Hart, Malherbe, Hodgson (Woodhead 3 (Graham 63)), Horsfall, Davidson, Cottrell; Steel (Chivers 60), Larkin, Hooper, Renton (Brown59), Rhodes, Hughes (Baldwin 47), Solomi, Vaioleti.

Otley: Quarendon (Nelson 11), Twomey (Collins 44 (Stedman 56)), White, Barker, Wilson, Manapenu, Depledge; Hamill, Steele, Denman, Quinn, Pawley, Beck, Sutton, Afoa-Peterson. Unused replacements: Cottello, Tennet.

Referee: I Tempest.