Orrell 30-34 Bees

Bees won a close encounter against Orrell 34-30 at Edge Hall Road. Bees scored 5 tries through Hese Fakatou, Shaun Woof, Matt Long, Nick Baxter and Aaron Takarangi

Tim Walsh made 3 conversions and a penalty

LETTING the opposition rack up 30 points is not the recommended method writ large in coaching manuals on how to win matches.

That Pertemps Bees did so and yet still won 34-30 at Orrell says much not only for both their persistence and resilience but also their defence.

When they went in at the break 16-10 down after being 7-0 up after four minutes the director of rugby Phil Maynard's comments were a model of imaginative use of the more colourful words and phrases from the English language.

Bees are top of National One with maximum points from their first four games.

Although Maynard is sure Orrell, who impressed him greatly, will take do well, like the rest of the sides Bees have played so far, the Wigan outfit are not expected to be among the end of the season shake up.

"We can put more structure into our game and I think that is what we are going to work on over the coming weeks. It is difficult to get the blood up against sides you know you should beat.

"The league is just shaping up at the moment. Orrell with certainly take a few scalps this year. They are a good side.

"They had three signings from Sale last week and one lad, flanker John Carter, scored two tries against us.

"Our set-pieces are quite tidy now but we just have to build our phase play around them. We usually find if we can get to five phases then one of two things happen, the

opposition concede a penalty of we score.

"On Sunday we got pulled into their kind of game which is a 'loose throw it about and get stuck in' game but had we played in the back third of the park which we planned to do from the start and driven a few of our set pieces, staying strong with our bigger forwards, it would have made it a much easier afternoon for us."

Hauled

As it was, defensive lapses meant that it needed a late try from the new, slimline winger Nick Baxter, who has lost a stone over the summer, to nip over for the winner after fellow tryscorer centre Shaun Woof had been hauled down a stride short.

Matt Long, Aaron Takarangi and Hese Fakatou were also on the try sheet

"They are a good set of players and they do not want to let themselves down and by the same token we are flying the flag for Birmingham rugby again as the best semi-professional side in the country," added Maynard.

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