Phoenix performance a bit how ya-goin’ at Wath…

Peacey’s men made the short journey to face South Yorkshire rivals Wath hoping to dominate the gig, however the home side benefitted from the bigger canastas on the day to come out on top 17-12.

The home team kicked off benefitting from a strong wind in the first half, however it was Phoenix who started the game like a cut snake. Centre Jono Storey, on his seasonal debut, went off in the first ten minutes like a raw prawn. From the first lineout of the game, the seed was spun into midfield where Storey hit it up the guts before offloading to skipper Andy Ellis, sniffing out some meat on Storey’s shoulder. After collecting the pill Ellis strapped on the feed bag and powered his way over under the sticks for his first meat pie of the day, converted by Ben Millar, 7-0.

Almost immediately from the restart, Storey and Ellis were at it again like seagulls on a tip. A beautiful midfield move released Ellis like a rat up a drainpipe, and he pinned his ears back from 30 yards out and bagged himself some more meat in the corner – although Millar missed the tough conversion from wide on the left, 12-0.

At this point, with some of the Wath players sweating like a gypsy with a mortgage, many of the Phoenix supporters were expecting a big win for the visitors. However Wath had other ideas and their experienced forwards began to dominate posession, with a succession of penalties taking the home side deep into Phoenix territory. Two penalties were kicked by the home full-back, before their winger grabbed himself some meat in the corner on the stroke of half time, 12-11.

Coaches Peacey and Scully called for Phoenix to calm things down in the second half when in posession, asking the visitors to tread carefully with a big stick, however the home team came out like a tree full of galahs and almost immediately took the lead with a penalty in front of the posts, 14-12.

Unfortunately for Phoenix, the wind & rain that had battered them in the first half gave way to bright sunshine, and whenever they enjoyed a bit of posession, they were either penalised or made handling errors to gift posession back to the home side.

As their frustration began to boil over, Chris Planchant was yellow carded for going head over biscuit in a ruck on half way. Wath kicked to the corner, and although the drive was repelled another penalty was awarded which the full-back kicked to move Wath further ahead at 17-12.

Despite Phoenix coming back in the final 5 minutes like a box of frogs, they were unable to get the seed over the stripe and the game finished at 17-12.

Next week Phoenix will hope to get back to winning ways, as they entertain Keighley at Castle Park, kick-off at 3pm.