Sheffield 29 - 21 York

Team Selection - 19th March 2011

15. Nick Cook
14. James Montgomery
13. Joe Cribley
12. Ryan Amos
11. Alex Hill
10. Donal Collins
9. Matthew Poste

1. Tommy Marples
2. Carl Mortimer
3. Chris Machen
4. John Dudley
5. Tom White
6. Dave Ellis
7. Martin Balshaw
8. Andy Kelly (Capt)

16. Ramzey Adamo
17. Laurence Thomas
18. Greg Hurst

Following last week’s poor performance and loss at home to Heath, Sheffield were desperate to get the wheels back on to their season, whilst York were also keen to reverse the fortunes of the defeat by Sheffield at York in the second match of the league programme In addition, whilst they had defeated Dinnington last week at home, they to had also fallen to Heath the previous week and wanted a much needed win. Sheffield were please to be able to bring back tight-head prop, Chris Machen with Ramzey Adamo dropping to the bench. Centres Ryan Ames and Joe Cribley both returned, the later after several weeks on the injury list, replacing Tom King and Greg Hurst, with Greg moving to the bench.

Rather as Heath had done last week, York came out fighting and firing on all cylinders and Sheffield had to get their defence in place very quickly. York were soon rewarded for their endeavours, when they were awarded a penalty almost directly in front of the Sheffield posts when they were adjudged to having not rolled Away at the breakdown. The York fly-half and former Hull Ionian player, Karl Birch tucked away with ease to give York the early advantage at 3 points to nil. York kept up their attacking barrage through some excellent forward work and then quick hands through their backs, but Sheffield’s defence held up extremely well. However, with 12 minutes on the clock Sheffield found themselves down to 14 men when second row Tom White was despatched to the sin-bin for not rolling away at the breakdown. However, Sheffield were now beginning to get into the game much more positively and were able to put growing pressure on the York defence and the loss of the second row did not overly affect the Sheffield effort. So after some fine work from the forwards and a couple of good runs from the backs, and some good positional kicking from Donal Collins, Sheffield found themselves camped on the York 5-metre line wide out on the left. White returned to the fray, the line-out was won and the Sheffield’s pack drove at eh York line hard and York’s defence eventually bucked, with flanker Martin Balshaw going over for the first try of the match. Collins could not ad the conversion, so with 22 minutes gone Sheffield had a narrow, but well deserved 5 point to 3 lead.

Despite York maintaining their attacking style, Sheffield now looked the slightly stronger of the two sides, but once again some indiscipline from Sheffield gave Birch his second opportunity to add points on 27 minutes, but he ball drifted past the left upright and the status quo remained as was. Then on 33 minutes, Sheffield’s right wing James Montgomery showed his pace and put York wing Billy Cakaunitabua to the sword, leaving him trailing in his wake, but with only the full-back to beat and support to his left, the ball was lost and York survived what surely should have been a score. Just 3 minutes later Balshaw was very unlucky to not add to his tally, when York fly-half Birch tried to clear from behind his try line. Balshaw managed to charge the kick down and almost scored, the ball just running agonisingly over the touch line as he dived on it. Sheffield were now at their most dominant and just a minute later, Balshaw was not to be denied. The flanker who moved out in to the backs emerged from between the centres and carved his way past several despairing tackles to score the second try just to the left of the York posts. Collins added the conversion and with 37 minutes gone, Sheffield had a 12 point to 3 lead.

From the restart some loose handling provided York with good field position, and after a number of drives from both their forwards and backs, Sheffield were again deemed to have erred and Karl Birch strode up to reduce the deficit to 12 points to 6, the referee Colin Tovey immediately blowing to bring the half to a close. Sheffield had had an excellent 20 minutes of play and should have led by a much larger margin.

Sheffield came out in the second period with the intent they had shown in the second half of the first period and were soon rewarded with a penalty opportunity, which fly-half Donal Collins despatched with alacrity to move the lead to 15 points to 6 on 46 minutes. Sheffield continued to dominate and with 53 minutes on the clock, it was that flanker Balshaw who crashed over out wide on the right to record, both his own, and Sheffield’s 3rd try. Collins kick was magnificent and the lead was extended to 22 points to 6. As is often the way with Sheffield, there was a little too much relaxation from Sheffield, and York who never ever look totally beaten, broke clear on the right for winger Charlie Nicholson to dive over in the corner. Birch could not add the extras, Sheffield had been warned and the lead was reduced to 22 points to 11 on 57 minutes. York now seemed to relish the challenge and up their game and just 4 minutes later were awarded a penalty, Birch did the honours and the lead was now 22 points to 14, with all to play for.

Sheffield began to respond to York’s pressure and visibly upped their game and with forwards driving at the opposition well and some searing runs from Montgomery, Cribley and full-back Nick Cook, York were again on the back foot. A number of penalties ensued as York come under increasing pressure, Collins took Sheffield deep into the York 22 and following winning excellent line out ball the forwards drove on for captain Andy Kelly to score once more, wide out left, one of several for the season. Donal Collins’ radar was now fully functional as he added the conversion to push the Sheffield lead to 29 points to 14 with 70 minutes gone. The bonus point having been secured, Sheffield now need on making sure the match was secure. York however, had other ideas, and even if they could not turn the match around, I’m sure the idea of a bonus point of their own had not been lost. They immediately got into the Sheffield defence and pressured hard, creating excellent field position almost in front of the Sheffield posts. Sheffield appeared to have everything covered, but somehow not quite. York scrum-half Aaron Thompson saw a gap down the side of the maul and dived over totally unopposed. Karl Birch converted the opportunity and Sheffield lead was reduced to 29 points to 21 with just 6 minutes plus stoppage time to play.

In the remaining period both side strived extremely hard to add to the score, but both defences held firm, and with 3 minutes of stoppage time gone My Tovey decided we had all had enough for this particular Saturday and we could all go and watch England in Dublin. I think we should have had another game outside to watch.

Substitutes used were:- Laurence Thomas for Tom White (Dave Ellis moving up into the second row and Laurence in at 6) and Greg Hurst for Alex Hill on the left wing. Not used:- Ramzey Adamo.