Doncaster Phoenix came away empty handed from their short trip to South Yorkshire rivals Sheffield despite taking an early lead against their hosts at Abbeydale Park.
Phoenix, for once started the brighter of the two sides and after shrugging off tackles in his own half flanker Will Taylor, not for the first time this season left defenders in his wake as he sprinted 50 metres to score under the posts. With fly-half Will Burden adding the extras, Phoenix took an early 7-0 lead but as it turned out, was to be their last success of the day.
Sheffield who had recently dropped to the third in the league were keen to get back on even terms quickly and did so with a converted try and a penalty within the first fifteen minutes. Worse was to follow for the visitors, having already lost prop forward Stylianos Theoklitou-Panagiotou after the opening score, a knee injury to inspirational skipper Sam Bottomley on the twenty-minute mark meant he too would play no further part in the game.
The hosts seized on this and before the half time whistle had extended their lead to 18 – 7 with an unconverted try and a penalty.
Phoenix struggled in the second half to obtain and then maintain possession against a now upbeat Sheffield side who were intent to earning maximum points from the fixture.
This they did with three second half tries, two converted, to give them a final score of 37 – 7.
This moved Sheffield back into second place in the league,and though other results below Phoenix went their way they remain in seventh position – but now have a week off before two tough fixtures.
They start by hosting table toppers and presently unbeaten Bournville at Castle Park on Saturday 1st February kick-off 1pm, before travelling to fourth place Bridgnorth the following Saturday.