Sandal 2's 3 Vs 24 Ossett

With the sad news of Rotherham Clifton withdrawing their team from Yorkshire 4, we at Ossett wish Rotherham Clifton the best and hope to come up against them again very soon.

With no fixture, Ossett took the short journey to Sandal to play against their second team. With the two teams close in distance the game ahead was surely going to be an exciting one, Sandal boasted a squad of 24 and hopes were high they were going to put one over the local minnows.

Before the game preparation was like weeks before, except no gloves for Clint and Fish used Sandal’s dryer to ensure he had a nice warm kit. With kick off looming Ossett had their warm up and stood in the changing rooms. Knowing aggression was the key for the game ahead, Coach Mark Stuart announced it was down to the players on the pitch. However, with Ossett winning the last three games they were in a positive frame of mind, knowing winning is a habit.

The first fifteen minutes of the game was extremely tight and played in Ossett’s final third with Sandal piling on the pressure for the Ossett defence. Ossett’s defence were stubborn and stern, not allowing Sandal to find any gaps in the defence, whether that was through the centre or the wide areas of the pitch. Ossett stood very strong, marching the defensive line forward and continuing to tackle hard. With the first scrum of the game Ossett’s forwards Elliot Gierula, Rob Young, Louis Dunbavin, John Hall, Leigh Learie, Dale Burnley, Jack Peat and Joe Rotchell drove the Sandal scrum backwards against the feed, making their forwards ‘kiss their own knees’ in Sam Drury’s words. With every breakdown and set piece it became obvious that Ossett’s forwards were dominating Sandal’s. They were driving them back in the scrum, whilst winning with and against the feed and winning all line outs. As this fifteen minutes went on Sandal realised they were not in for a walkover and decided to kick for three points after a penalty, but were unsuccessful with the penalty kick.

From this 22 metre drop out Ossett began to change the game and started to dominate. Furthermore, this brought Ossett for the first time into the Sandal half. The forwards were driving Ossett forward, continuing to break the Sandal defence. Ossett found themselves in Sandals 22 and after some quick hands the ball went out to Tom Tattersfield who managed to finish the try off very well and grounding in the corner. With this being the first-time Ossett manged to get into the Sandal half it showed just how clinical Ossett can be. With the conversion, Drury struck the post to keep the score at 0-5.

For the rest of the first half the game was played in the middle third of the pitch but was following the same sequence as the first twenty minutes with Sandal having much of the possession but Ossett looking the more dangerous side. With the defensive line speed from every single player in the team Ossett were forcing mistakes. Again, every time Ossett had the ball they were steaming forward with the forwards making hard yards and then the backs making devastating yards whether that was with kick chase or with swinging the ball out. With Daniel Bonner at 9, Jack Drury at 10, Shaun Abson and Mark Buckborough in the centres, and Tim Roberts, Tom Tattersfield and Mark Fisher in the back three the backs moved up well and gained yards in attack as well as chasing and returning kicks well. Unfortunately, in the first half Danny Bonner scrum half broke his collarbone after a quick tap penalty. We hope Danny has a speedy recovery and look forward to the 250+ capped player returning to the first team shortly. Credit to the Sandal player who bridged Dan so he couldn’t be caught again and calling for the game to be stopped.

This introduced Mark Stuart into the game playing at scrum half! Yes, that is right Mark Stuart went to scrum half and began to dominate! Ordering forwards into the ruck Ossett again stood strong with Sandal again opting to kick for three points after pressure in the Ossett 22. Sandal kicked the penalty taking the score to 3-5 at half time. Ossett knew more of the same and more control with ball in hand they would walk away winners in this game.

Half time saw the introduction of Gareth Lewis the marauding prop forward unusually playing at 8 to carry ball. With the start of the second half Ossett immediately went down to Sandal’s end and scored. It started with the catch from Jack Peat which then Ossett began to throw out. Then from that breakdown scrum half natural Mark Stuart stepped and popped the ball up to Dale Burley, who powered through the Sandal defence. With side steps and fends that would knock down brick walls Dale ran a huge 40 metres before grounding the ball after diving before the line. A cracking team try that was finished with a piece of individual brilliance. This time Drury kicked the extras making the score 3-12. From this point on Ossett’s confidence in attack and defence grew. Ossett had a new target not just win the game but stop Sandal from scoring any more points. From this point on territory was controlling the game for Ossett with Drury and Roberts controlling the average Sandal half backs with ease and stopping them from having any influence on the game. Clinton North also came on at this point to replace Elliot, however he came on at scrum half as Stuart went into the front row. Still in the second half Ossett were dominating set pieces to the point where Sandal first stopped kicking for touch and were tapping penalties to eventually going to uncontested scrums on their own five-meter line without any obvious injury to the prop (maybe just pride?) despite the heckling from Sam Drury on the side line.

With Ossett continuing to dominate in all areas of the pitch, they earned their third try of the game. Again, a great team try with individual brilliance. Ossett’s centres Buckborough and Abson once again penetrated the weakening Sandal defence before Clinton North from scrum half chipped the ball over the top with intimidating Fisher chasing the ball down Sandal’s winger dropped the ball and it bounced into the arms of Fisher who placed the ball down before completing the ‘scouse shuffle’ in celebration, which poshies Sandal didn’t appreciate but Joe Rotchell certainly did. Drury added the extras to bring the score to 3-19. The game continued in similar fashion with Ossett looking the more dangerous side. Soon again Ossett found themselves on the Sandal line trying to get over again.

With around twenty phases Ossett couldn’t get over. Despite the hard-fought defence from Sandal it was to no a vail, as man of the match and the best-looking prop forward (maybe player?) in the league Louis Dunbavin manged to get over the line with a strong forward run and grounding the ball in one hand. This try showed the difference between the two outfits with Ossett the stronger, more aggressive and overall better side.

Other mentions go out to Mark Stuart who managed to make a 30-yard break from a scrum at 9 with a dummy, sidestep and fend before the break. As no one did expect to see such quality there was no support for the new number 9. Now with four wins on the bounce Ossett have three tough league fixtures ahead and want to keep riding the victory wave, everyone get to training to keep this momentum going.

Tries: Tattersfield, Burnley, Fisher, Dunbavin

Conversions: Drury 2

MOM Points: 5 – L Dunbavin, 4 – D Burnley, 3 – M Stuart, 2 – J Hall, 1 – M Fisher, R Young & T Tattersfield