As Christmas approaches it’s always a struggle for the Cavs to get a team out. A lot of the younger lads have to work right through December and by this time in the season injuries in both the 1st & 2nd XVs are starting to mount. This season has proved to be no exception. As game day approached the Cavs had just managed to get to 15 players, albeit with several players having to play out of position, and reluctantly included the Cavs coach Peter having to lace up his battered boots once again (Peter refuses to buy a new pair of boots as he insists that he’s retired from playing).

However, in a sign of the times, the Referee’s society was unable to appoint a referee. None of the Morley refs were available and so Morley prop Ian Craigen (a qualified referee) had to take the whistle. This resulted in the Cavs having to borrow a prop from today’s opponents, Old Rishworthians, in order to keep the game at 15 a side with contested scrums. As soon as a team borrows a player they seem to lose a lot of intensity, as if it’s no longer an “us” against “them” scenario. I’ve witnessed this happen on numerous occasions both to Morley and to various opponents and it happened again this week.

Old Rishworthians are proving to be one of the stronger 2nd teams in the division this season and they’ve had their numbers considerably boosted with several players from Siddal RL. As you would expect from a RL dominated team, Rishworthians ran hard & straight. That’s not normally an issue to the Cavs as defence in general, and tackling in particular, has been one of our main strengths this season. But today the defence just wasn’t organised, the line speed was none existent and the tackling was far too high. This enabled Rishworthians main ball carriers to make far too many yards before spinning the ball out wide to score. It was a case of rinse and repeat as they rushed into a 28-0 lead within the first 20 minutes.

However, credit to the Cavs as personal pride kicked in and they gradually managed to establish a foothold in the game. Morley scored their first try of the day through debutant scrum half Adam Summers, who had been Morley’s best player from the start. From a wide ruck on Rishworthians 22, Adam made a quick break down the blind side to score in the corner. I’ve a feeling that the Morley faithful will be seeing a lot more of this young man in weeks to come!

From here on in the game was a much more even contest. Morley tightened up their defence and tried to play a more technical game of Union. This exposed some deficiencies in our RL opponents as they began to concede numerous ruck penalties and gradually lost their discipline as frustration got the better of them. Had Morley been able to score next then the comeback may well have been on but alas, it was opponents who scored a well worked try on the stroke of halftime to effectively seal the game. HT 35-5.

The 2nd half was a scrappy, penalty strewn affair. Morley were awarded a penalty try and Old Rishworthians scored twice more to give a final score of 49-12.

As I said, not a day to remember but the Cavs were not too downhearted as they held their Christmas celebration in the bar afterwards! The Cavs have postponed this Saturday’s fixture against Moortown, moving it back to February, in the hope that a decent break will allow us to get some troops back for the 2nd half of the season.

Photos of this match and the previous match against Old Brodleians have been posted by David Evans on the web site. Check out the Gallery or click the links below.

Cavc v Old Brods

Cavs v Old Rishworthians