No heroic Green recovery this time

6:33pm Sunday 2nd November 2008

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Cambridge 52, Wharfedale 7

Wharfedale suffered the full force of a Cambridge backlash yesterday in National League Two following the promotion hopefuls’ surprise defeat at Waterloo last weekend.

They must have expected and prepared for the onslaught, but when it came there was little they could do about it.

The final scoreline, with a seven tries to one tally, does, it should be said, somewhat overstate the Cambridge dominance – two tries arrived in stoppage time – but the Greens will have no complaints.

It will be small comfort that full back Adam Whaites’ splendid score – weaving through the defence in the ninth minute – was a strong candidate for try of the match.

Scrum half Stefan Liebenberg (five minutes) opened the scoring and, after Whaites’ equaliser, the Blues simply ran the Dalesmen breathless for the remainder of the half, despite adding just a try by fly half Craig Evans (10 minutes) and a late penalty by full back Ben Patston (who had a 100 per cent goal-kicking record in the game) to their score for 17-7 at the break.

Any hopes that the Greens had of a repeat of recent second-half recoveries were quickly dashed.

Within three minutes of the restart, tries by right winger Luke Fielden and prop Mike Guess had effectively settled the outcome.

The visitors, much changed from the originally selected squad (forwards Chris Steel, Tom Horner, Antony Capstick, Sam Freer and Dave Muckalt were all unable to make the trip) showed admirable determination, and fitness, to claim a fair share of possession for the rest of the game, but only rarely looked likely to add to their score.

Left winger Chris Lombard (53 minutes) crossed for the home side’s fifth try, and No 8 Dave Archer and centre James Knight heaped salt in the Dalesmen’s wounds in the dying minutes.