Huddersfield RU 22

Otley 7

(National II North)

A BRACE of tries from Chris Johnson and one for Adam Ryder on his debut cemented Huddersfield’s victory over former National League high-flyers Otley.

Huddersfield were always in command, even when being reduced to 13 men with prop Tony Stringwell and full-back Dave Hall both sitting alongside each other in the sin-bin early in the second half.

Predictably, Johnson had struck the first blow for Huddersfield with a penalty after just three minutes, and then with the home side pressurising at a line-out, the Otley hooker overthrew the ball and the alert Johnson was on hand to snap it up and scoot through for the game’s opening try, to which he also added the goal.

Field continued to show greater flair than their illustrious visitors, and after a good passage of play which saw the ball going through plenty of hands, Johnson looked up and saw a huge overlap out wide, and whipped the ball out to winger Ryder, who had the simplest jobs of crossing for the second try of the game.

And although the fly-half was unable to add the conversion, and the half ended with player-coach Dan Hyde in the sin-bin, Huddersfield went into the break 15-0 ahead and looking good value for their lead.

Otley hit back from the restart, when prop Jonathan McMillan crossed the line for a try which Nick Coupland converted to cut the deficit, but then came a crucial stage of the game as the home side lost Stringwell and Hall for 10 minutes apiece, and had to defend for all they were worth in their absence.

Having weathered the storm however, Field then hit back in positive fashion when Otley started spinning the ball about in desperation and promptly dropped it, at which point Johnson kicked ahead and beat his own winger Adam Sutcliffe to the touchdown for his second try.

The No10 added his second goal and the points were in the bag.

“I thought the lads played really, really well, and it’s just what we were looking for after the disappointment of losing at Hull Ionians last week,” said coach Hyde.

“We showed the kind of desire and passion that we produced last season, and I thought our defence was immense, particularly when we were reduced to 13 men and it was a ‘backs-to-the-wall job.’

“There were some outstanding performances, with Ben Morrill showing great form in the loose, while the Paxman twins, Lee and Ben didn’t miss a tackle between them and along with Gaz Lewis and Ben Hoyle marshalled the defence superbly. And Jonno (Chris Johnson) produced one of his best performances.”

Huddersfield: Hall; Sutcliffe; Paxman (B), Paxman (L), Ryder; Johnson, Hinchliffe; Battye, Morrill, Stringwell, Sharpe, Davies, Hoyle, Lewis, Hyde. Subs: Bodsworth on for Hyde 47, Hinchliff on for Hoyle 56, Lancaster on for Stringwell 75, Owen on for Johnson 77.