Malton & Norton 17 v 15 Sheffield

Malton & Norton 17 - 15 Sheffield

Team Selection - 16th October 2010

15. Ewan Reed
14. Alistair Womack
13. Matthew Delany
12. Ryan Amos
11. Alex Hill
10. Donal Collins
9. Matthew Poste

1. Tommy Marples
2. Carl Mortimer
3. Ramzey Adamo
4. Simon McGee
5. John Dudley
6. Laurence Thomas
7. Dave Ellis
8. Andy Kelly (Capt)

16. Chris Stanney
17. Andrew Enevoldson
18. James Montgomery

Once again Sheffield ring the changes. The injury last week to Joe Cribley’s shoulder ensured he would not be available to travel this Saturday and his position at outside centre went to Matt Delany, back this week from his travels to Australia. Ali Womack moved from the bench to the right wing and Laurence Thomas returned in the back row in place of Dale Goulding who dropped to the 2’s. The successful combination of John Dudley and Simon McGee was retained and the bench saw the return of James Montgomery (Moose) and the inclusion of newcomer Andrew Enevoldson, a medic who was formally with our near neighbours, Sheffield Tigers.

Sheffield travelled to Malton expecting a tough game against the other team at the top of the table and they were not to be ‘disappointed’. The weather moved from fine and sunny to heavy drizzle which did not assist with the ball handling. Malton came out firing on all cylinders and Sheffield initially struggled with both the pace and power of the opposition. Playing with the wind and with the rain at their backs, Malton were soon offered a chance to go ahead, when they were awarded a penalty, wide out on the left, however, inside centre, Teei Piawa’s (I think this is not a traditional Yorkshire name) radar was vastly out of order and the threat passed both very wide and short of the posts.

Malton however, had the upper hand and powered at and into the Sheffield defence, and with almost 10 minutes gone thought they had scored a try through their pack, wide out on the right. The referee disagreed and Malton had a 5-metre scrum. Sheffield defended strongly and eventually turned the ball over, before being awarded a penalty themselves to help clear their line. However, Donal Collins did not appear to be totally on song with his kicking, touch was missed and Malton were back on the attack. Sheffield continued to be under pressure for sometime, but managed to keep repelling the boarders, that is until almost 20 minutes had elapsed. From a ruck Malton won good quick ball and Sheffield’s mid-field defence went walkabout, probably with Malton’s Aussie tight head prop, and the ball found its way to winger Rob Armitage as poor Ewan reed was left stranded on his own. Piawi could still not find his kicking boots, but Malton had first blood, to lead 5 points to nil.

The pressure stayed very firmly in Sheffield, although bit by bit they began to get more and more into the game. However, Malton drove hard at Sheffield up front and continued to look to attack through the not inconsiderable bulk of Ryan Lonsdale. Malton next opportunity emerged after 25 minutes, when once again Lonsdale sent Armitage searing away down the right, however, on this occasion Ewan Reed was well placed and brought Armitage to ground and with Ryan Amos in attendance Sheffield were awarded a penalty when Malton were deemed to have gone off their feet at the breakdown. Sheffield’s improvement continued and more and more possession started to come their way. However, with 29 minutes on the clock, Sheffield scrum half Matt Poste was dispossessed by the Malton scrum half Tom Collard and in the melee that followed, Malton’s 8 picked up and released fly-half Chris Creber, the Sheffield mid-field was caught out again and Teei Piawi was able to crash over out on the left. Again the kicking boots eluded him and Sheffield fell behind by 10 points to nil.

Sheffield were after this set back, much more in the game and began to impose themselves much more on their opposition, and after a number of consecutive penalties at the breakdown were awarded one more, with the sin-binning of the Aussie prop, Liam Vaughan. Donal Collins converted the opportunity to reduce the deficit to 10 points to 3 after 35 minutes. Sheffield with the man advantage pressed even harder and right on half time were awarded another penalty almost on Malton’s 5 metre line. Sheffield asked the referee if there was time for the lineout and were told no, and so elected to go for the kick. Collins radar was as faulty as Piawi’s and the ball passed harmlessly to the left of the posts. Malton touched down and started to walk away for their half time team talk. Our referee bizarrely instead they re-start the match and played fully 5 more minutes, such that Liam Vaughan was back on for the second half of the match. This was not to be the referee’s last utterly strange decision and both sides spent much of the second half screaming at him, both on and off the pitch as spectator and player fell deeper into bemusement.

Once into the second period Sheffield looked to much more comfortable with themselves and the opposition and were now beginning to play much better, making very good use of the conditions and continually turning Malton around and pinning them into their own half, and so it was with 13 minutes of the half behind us, Sheffield broke through the Malton defence. Ali Womack started it in mid-field, hunting for ball from off his right wing, he passed on the Ewan Reed, who in turn found Ryan Amos, Amos passé it back to Womack, then back to Amos before they looped around each other with the ball once more finding Womack who found the line very comfortably mid-way between posts and touch line. Unfortunately and crucially, Collins could not add the extras and the deficit remained 2 points at 10 to 8. Prior to this Sheffield had spent a considerable amount of time on and in Malton’s 5-metre zone with Malton conceding a number of penalties as the battering continued wide out on the left, but if Sheffield imagined that such cynical play would result in a penalty try, they were to be very, very disappointed indeed.

Sheffield maintained the pressure and were again rewarded for their harassment of the opposition, when after 62 minutes and a lot of pressure, Malton panicked a little and a wild pass found its way to a Sheffield player and Ali Womack was soon in possession and speeding over the Malton try line unopposed. On this occasion Collins could ad the 2 points and Sheffield led fro the first time by 15 to 10. It is at these moments that concentration is everything. Sheffield relaxed and within 3 minutes Malton had struck again as on this occasion Teei Piawi went through the mid-field like we had gone home, he offloaded to Lonsdale who in turn passed on the Armitage to register his second score wide out on the right. Teei Piawi stepped up to the plate and unfortunately for Sheffield managed to just nudge over the conversion to take Malton back into the lead at 17 points to 15.

From this point the refereeing became even more bizarre than it had been previously, leaving both sets of players, coaches and spectators aghast, and in a period where Sheffield now dominated we suffered very badly. The final straw, or straws, being a concerted period again in Malton’s 5-metre zone, only to be penalised for a collapsed scrum that had not gone down at all and had resulted in Sheffield stealing Malton’s ball. This was followed by another time issue. With the ball on Malton’s 10 metre line for a Sheffield throw, the referee was asked how long was left to play, he indicated that there were in excess of 5 minutes, but when the ball went into touch, less than 30 seconds later, he blew for the end of the match, leaving everyone amazed, but Malton exceedingly happy to have survived when they were thoroughly under the cosh.

Both sides endeavoured to play open attacking rugby and both defended pretty well for most of the game, but both sides also showed that they sometimes have defensive frailties; the return fixture at Abbeydale Park at the end of January should be well worth the cost of a programme.

The only substitute used was Andrew Enevoldson for Laurence Thomas (71).

The weeks results were:-

(1 Bonus Point) Heath (9) 58 - 9 (0) Dinnington
2 Bonus Points) Ilkley (4) 24 - 27 (4) Castleford (1 Bonus point)
(1 Bonus Point) Keighley (8) 55 - 22 (3) Bridlington
Knottingley (2) 23 - 14 (2) York
Malton & Norton (3) 17 - 15 (2) Sheffield (1 Bonus Point)
(1 Bonus Point) North Ribblesdale (4) 22 - 16 (2) Selby (1 Bonus Point)
Scarborough (1) 17 - 5 (0) Bradford Salem