Hessle 5 - 29 Ossett

HESSLE 5 OSSETT 29

Ossett travelled to Livingstone Road hoping to complete an unbeaten first half of the season in this first versus second place encounter. On a windswept pitch by the side of the Humber estuary Ossett kicked off. In only the second minute of the game, skipper and scrum half Danny Buckley made a lovely dart through the home defensive line and set up quick ruck ball. The ball got to stand off Shaun Abson who attacked the line and then put through a deft grubber kick towards the wing. Centre Luke Newsome showed his blistering pace and amazingly got a hand on the ball to score a superb opening try in the corner. Jack Drury was wide with the difficult conversion attempt in the strong wind, 5-0 to Ossett. From the kick off the visitors were straight back into attack, and only 2 minutes later following a strong run from prop Louis Dunbavin, Abson again fed the potent Ossett back line. A lovely handling move involving Tom Rogers, Luke Newsome and Jack Drury culminated in wing Nathan Lawrence touching down under the sticks for Ossett’s second, Drury converting for a 12-0 lead with less than 5 minutes played.

On 14 minutes Hessle threw into a line out and drove the ball on, but Isaac Troughton turned the ball over. Abson again used his backs and wing Nathan Lawrence passed to Tom Rogers, who outpaced the home defence to give him 5 tries in two games, and to give Ossett a 17-0 lead.

At this point it looked as though it would be a repeat of the previous Saturday’s big win versus Mosborough, especially as they had not been in the Ossett half, but Hessle has other ideas. They fought back with strong running from their props, number 8 and centres, and on 25 minutes their hard graft paid off when after solid driving a long pass found prop Stuart Crooks, who pinned his ears back and made a superb one handed offload to winger Karl Robinson who scorched in at the corner to reduce the deficit to 17-5.

Ossett nearly hit straight back with Ryan Fonquernie and Isaac Troughton battering the Hessle line, only for the referee to adjudge they were short of the whitewash. Ossett continued to attack but the half time score remained at 17-5.
In the second half Hessle increased their intensity and could have scored a couple of times, but the Ossett defence held well and the attacks were repelled. It wasn’t until midway through the second half that Ossett scored again. After a series of drives from among others Nase Alofi and Tom Rogers, a ruck was set up 15 metres in from the left touchline. Scrum half Danny Buckley outwitted the defence by faking to go open and passing to Nathan Lawrence on the blind side wing. The home side were caught napping and Lawrence strolled in for the try which was unconverted – 22-5. With 11 minutes left on the clock Ossett were reduced to 14 when the referee thought that Luke Newsome’s interception attempt was a deliberate knock on. The scoring was completed at the very end of the game when Man of the Match Isaac Troughton showed great strength to barge his way under the posts. Shaun Abson converted on what was a vey difficult day for kicking to give the final score of 29-5. The whole side contributed to this win, but outstanding on the day, apart from MOM Troughton were flanker Adam Race, Tom Rogers and stand off Shaun Abson, who not only marshalled his backline superbly, but also put in an impressive defensive effort.

In the end the scoreline looks to be quite comfortable, but this was a hard fought victory against a strong Hessle side, who battled until the end. Nevertheless, that meant that Ossett finished the first half of the season undefeated. The top half of each Division 4 league now merge and the cream of both leagues will fight it out for promotion. There are some tough encounters to come, but Ossett must fancy themselves to be there or thereabouts come the end of April.

Jez Slack