WESTOE remain rooted at the bottom of National League Division Three North after this defeat at home to Sheffield Tigers but Director of Rugby Andy Howells remains upbeat.

Joe McKenzie and James Sant scored the tries while Matthew Mellish added five points with the boot for the JML-sponsored side but they were unable to live with a Sheffield side who moved into fifth with a 47-15 win.

Westoe have had an awful run of injuries which meant they started with a number of young and inexperienced players, one of which was Sant, who is usually a third team prop. However Howells pointed to his performance as just one of the positives to be taken from the game. He said: “This run of injuries has been horrific. We had two props on the bench which just tells a story. Santa started and finished 80 minutes of rugby and he is a third team player. We’ve just said to him in the dressing room, we cannot ask for any more than he did. Fifteen of him and we’d be spot on.”

Westoe were handed a boost prior to kick off when both captain James Clark and prop Rami Elliott were passed fit to play. And Howells believes getting these players back is vital.
He said: “At the start of the season I thought we probably would have been good enough to challenge in the top six but injuries have just killed us at times. That’s the first game back for Rami for three, four weeks and we missed him desperately. And when we move him from tight head we miss him even more as you saw today when we did it. “But we’ve just got to get these players back as I think the back line can be quite devastating when they are given decent ball. So it’s just we need to get some bulk into the forwards.”

However Westoe started slowly and found themselves down by 11 after just eight minutes. But they rallied and after Mellish had knocked over a penalty, Joe McKenzie scored a try after the Westoe pack won a scrum against the head. But with the momentum clearly with Westoe, their cause was furthered hindered with two yellow cards. The first came after 20 minutes when Tim Pickersgill was penalised for an alleged stamp and then three minutes into the second half Clark was harshly adjudged to have deliberately knocked on. These incidents saw Westoe concede 22 points, killing the game as a contest. Sheffield ran in a further two converted tries before Sant got his first try for the club and it led to a spirited finish with Reggie Fassa, Alex Clark and Andrew Lawson all to the fore.

Howells was pleased with that finish and hopes it will be a sign of better times in the future. He said: “They are a good team but we gave them too much respect. Our line speed was poor at time, we didn’t lead the line at times and I’m disappointed in that. But we’ll just keep plugging away. There were some positives in there. “We’ve got to turn it around by Christmas, it’s a must. I’ve had a meeting with the chairman and president this morning. Obviously we’ve got our new prop and second row due back in the next two weeks. Plus we’ve got a couple more coming in but we need them. “People say to me we should promote from within but we haven’t got enough depth to promote from within so we’ve got to work with what we’ve got at the present time. I think that’s what people forget. Carlo del Fava is doing a great job, he’s a good coach but we just need that bit extra, that bit of luck and we didn’t get that today against them.”