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With Bradford salem dropping out the week before, ensians were into the semi final of the plate , without passing a ball. the team selected was a mixture of regular 2nds with a few 1st team returners from injury or bench players to help out.

The front row was, captain mick groves, ginger john [ offer ] & josh dyson [ who could now remember what day of the week it was ! ]. whily wheely was on the bench, with rob lyon dropping out with an nasty tummy upset. Matty tenniswood was back in the 2nd row with ross [ the head ] nicols to add some much needed dead weight to the scrum. Ben [ im never wrong ] smith, alex beckets wright & dan ridgeway made up the back row. Alex burnet played 9 after converting from hooker, with dom oddy moving from centre to 10 [ to make sure he got some good ball ]. The phenomenal james [ the juggernaut ] smith played inside centre while joe [ the wheels ] ridgeway played 13. Daz cooley & joe tindal started on the wings, with the Richard branson of the team [ alex murphy ] putting on the fullbacks shirt after sealing a million pound deal in the afternoon. Alex [the shoulders ] bayfield, dougie [ where am I ] elgar & conner paley were on the bench.

With Roundhegians having to travel down for an evening kickoff, tactical technician Harrison marshal came up with a plan, while team manager tempo said – just hit them before they’ve got out of their cars !! ensians attacked from the kickoff & with good hands, ben smith was over after backing up to make it 5 – 0 with 3 minutes on the clock. Roundhegians took the ball to ensians from the restart, using big forwards & backs, but ginger john was tackling anything that moved with alex wright, & ben smith had his hands in for several turnovers with alex burnet. Good hands across the backs, gave joe ridgeway some room & he was away to make it 10 – 0.

Penalties allowed Roundhegians to get field position, & they drove over from a lineout to make it 10 – 5 on 25 minutes, but it wasn’t long before one of juggernaut james smiths runs pulled in the Roundhegians defence for murphy to come round the corner at pace, & run from 22 to under to posts to make it 17 – 5.

A stupid pass from the restart put ensians under pressure, & rounday were over again to keep in touch at 17 – 12, before another james smith & murphy combo opened up the field & with good hands from daz & joe, ben smith was on hand to score again after backing up as all good backrows should, to make it 31 – 12. From the restart, matty straightenened, ross, dan & josh cleared out & alex [ the flashy bastard ] murphy was gone again to punish the rounday defence, to score his second before half time. A few changes were made at half time with the ginger flash - conner paley replacing the flashy bastard murphy, with wheely replacing josh dyson & alex the shoulders giving james smith a break.

It was a case of “ anything you can do “ as conner came on an arcing run to score after a matty tenniswood break to make it 41 – 12. Alex the shoulders, became alex [ where am I, who am I ] after his first tackle went wrong, so dougie [ I think I know where I am ] elgar made his first start for a while, on the wing after suffering a few concussions to get some game time under his belt. Good hands put joe ridgeway again to score his second, before Roundhegians scored again from a line out, for a final score of 48 – 19, with matty kicking 4 conversions.

An entertaining game to watch with simple hands & support with good running lines causing Roundhegians problems all game, with the skipton win the week before bringing confidence back to the 2nd team.

Onwards & upwards for a final in the Aire Wharfe plate on Thursday 10th may at ensians. Kick off at 7 against a very strong Keighley team.