Scarborough crush Wath to take top spot

Scarborough always had too much power and pace for a rather pedestrian Wath side running in five spectacular tries on the way to a bonus point 35-5 home win which took them to the top of Yorkshire One.

The opening exchanges saw the Seasiders’ pack dominate the visiting eight with a series of punishing scrums, driving the south Yorkshiremen off their own ball and marching them backward deep in their own half.

From the subsequent clean possession a series of foraging runs from powerful wingmen Harry Domett and Joe Marshall stretched the visitor’s wide defence.

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Orchestrated by their halfback partnership of Jordi Wakeham and Tom Chadwick it looked only a matter of time before Scarborough got the scoreboard ticking and that time came in the 20th minute when a slick move up the right flank saw Chadwick release fullback Corey Dennis to outstrip the visiting defence and send Joe Marshall in for a try right out of the top drawer. Chadwick added the extras for a 7-0 lead.

Scarborough’s Matty Else was sin binned for an offence at the breakdown in the 26th minute but skipper Tom Ratcliffe’s men struck within a minute of his departure when the ever-dangerous and fast improving Domett broke from deep to power over and stretch the lead to 12-0; Chadwick failed to convert.

With the exception of scrum-half Joe Bartlett, the Wath midfield struggled as Scarborough forwards Matty Oxtoby, Paul Taylor, Ian Williams, Mikey Readman and Nick Ingham battered their way through the middle and bore down on his colleagues at a series of probing up-and-unders.

Tom Chadwick surprisingly missed a penalty head-on to the posts when the Wath defence drifted offside in the 35th minute but made amends a minute later when he slotted a more difficult kick to stretch the lead to 15 points.

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And then from good work by Jordi Wakeham, the Scarborough fly-half broke from defence, released Domett and the powerful wingman’s perfectly timed pass sent Ratcliffe powering over in the 40th minute. Chadwick converted for a 22-0 half-time lead.

With three in the bag, Scarborough went all out for a fourth bonus-point winning try and should have had it a minute into the second half.

Good work by Wakeham and Chadwick saw the latter release Domett to blister down the left touchline before passing inside to Graeme Jeffrey up in support with the line at his mercy; however the ball somehow cannoned off the big centre’s forehead and the chance had gone.

However a further Penalty from Chadwick stretched the lead to 25-0 in the 44th minute.

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The Seasiders clinched their bonus point with a spectacular try in the 56th minute when following exchanges on halfway, flanker Rob Sutton broke down the right touchline to cross in the corner in the 51st minute.

Chadwick was unsuccessful with the touchline conversion and Scarborough led 30-0.

With the bonus point in the bag, Scarborough appeared to take their foot off the gas and Wath scored a try with a very rare incursion into the home 22.

The south Yorkshiremen won possession from an attacking line-out and although they made little progress from a catch-and-drive, the ball was moved to scrum-half Joe Bartlett who wriggled over for the visitors to reduce the arrears at 30-5.

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The fourth quarter was a relative disappointment for the big Silver Royd turnout as the Seasiders failed to get the ball wide where they had troubled the visitors all afternoon.

Prop Ryan Pickering was sin-binned in the 68th minute and Paul Taylor, who had limped off earlier to be replaced by Bob Murphy, returned to the front row. Scarborough did butcher several chances which would have produced a score-line which would have better reflected what in the end was a rather one sided game; however the game ended on a high note when the irrepressible Harry Domett went over for his second touchdown of the afternoon.

This was a Scarborough victory produced by dominance at the set pieces, commitment at the breakdown and clinical finishing from the backs. Halfbacks Wakeham and Chadwick were outstanding with Domett, Marshall and Dennis always dangerous in the threes.

The tight five were cohesive and abrasive in equal parts and Matty Oxtoby had a stand-out game in the back row.

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