Ossett 2nd XV took the short journey to near neighbours Castleford missing a few regulars including pretty much a whole back line forcing the introduction of new faces as well as the appearance of regular front rower (!) Gareth Burnley in the centres. The conditions were muddy and cold, perfect for the forwards.

Ossett started brightly, with the scrum in ascendancy and the line out through Chris White functioning well. Skipper Mark Fisher marshalled his runners well from scrumhalf whilst Johny Banks, Ian Whitehead and Duncan Barbour were willing runners. On the odd occasion the ball was spun wide, Ossett made yards and good hands in the backs saw winger Mark Mayfield touch down in the corner to open the days' scoring. The conversation attempt was successful to give Ossett a 7-0 lead. Castleford hit back almost immediately, scoring a try after a loose kick was picked up by the impressive full back and returned through a poor kick chase. The try was followed by an unsuccessful conversion attempt.

Ossett continued to play the conditions well, making ground up the pitch through some strong runners and forced a penalty in front of the post. The visitors opted against the easy three points, trying to run the ball before inexplicably opting to chip the ball into the grateful hands of the opposition who called the mark and gratefully cleared their lines to call time on the first half.

In the second half, Ossett were now playing downhill. The home side were in possession of the ball and holding territory. A penalty for Castleford in an identical position to the one Ossett had in the first half was converted to give them the lead for the first time. Ossett roared back to life and after a series of penalties, Whitehead crashed over from short range to restore the away sides lead.

From here, Ossett showed naivety providing Castleford with a route back into the game through a series of errors and stepping away from the forward dominated phases that suited Ossett and the conditions well. A number of hopeful kicks weren't chased fully, and Castleford managed to run the ball back with ease reaching the heroic last ditch tackling from Ben Jennings before offloading to score 2 quick tries. Ossett's Wardman swapped around to play for Castleford to ensure the scrums continued as a competition but this strengthened the Castleford scrum reducing Ossett's ascendancy. At this stage the game was getting scrappy, the referee, who had earlier taken out Banks with a no arms tackle, injured himself and had to be replaced. Still there was time for one more Castleford try to put the gloss on a good comeback by the home team with a well worked final try.

The scoreline didn't really reflect the game which early in the second half could have gone either away. Ossett do need to improve their defence and kick chase. Hopefully numbers will improve, particularly for the speedier players, if we're to be successful against another local rival in Morley 3s on Saturday. Man of the match went to Johny Banks but could have easily gone to Ben Jennings.