Sheffield 39 - 17 Castleford

Sheffield 31 - 17 Castleford

Team Selection - 9th April 2011

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

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

16. Nick Tomsett
17. Tom Womack
18. Tom Metcalf

Following last week’s tense win over a battling Bradford Salem, Sheffield hosted Castleford who last week hung on from a 36 to nil lead to win 36 to 26 at home to North Ribblesdale, a result that should see them stay clear of the drop zone.

Sheffield saw the return of Chris Machen at prop after he missed last week’s encounter with the injury picked up in the win at Dinnington the previous week, with Nick Tomsett dropping to the bench. James Montgomery returned from holiday to replace Tom Metcalf on the wing, Tom moving to the bench in place of Liam Wallace who missed out to play for the Colts in their win against Old Brodleians in the Yorkshire Colts league Final. John Dudley was away in Dubai on a rugby jolly and was ably covered by the return of Dave Ellis. In addition, centre Joe Cribley had to cry off late in the morning with an injury and Ewan Reed, recently back from injury was called back from the 2’s to replace him. Our referee for the day was the former Welsh International fly-half, Gary Pearce.

Sheffield started a little stutteringly with Castleford looking fully committed, with Sheffield being penalised almost immediately for handling in the ruck. However, from the resulting lineout Castleford managed to knock-on to hand the advantage back to Sheffield. Sheffield then had another penalty awarded against them to allow Castleford to the opportunity to get into the Sheffield 22 and have the throw in to the line on the 10 metre line. With ball won Castleford drove hard and were rewarded with a try wide out on the left with just under 10 minutes gone, score by hooker Darren Walker, and following an excellent conversion by fly-half, Ian Mattison they led by 7 points to nil.

However, from the restart Sheffield began to increase the pressure and were unlucky not to score after 15 minutes when a good move in the backs involving Nick Cook, Ewan Reed and Ryan Amos sent wing Alex Hill of down the left only to be bundled into touch a few yard out. Then with 20 minutes gone Castleford had a good break down their left brought to a halt when a forward pass was adjudged to have occurred. From the resulting scrum, right wing James Montgomery came into the line and scythed through the Castleford defence from over half way to score wide out on the left, a trade mark ‘Moose’ try. Donal Collins showed that he had brought his kicking boots with him from home and added a difficult conversion to tie the scores at 7 all on 21 minutes.

From the restart Laurence Thomas made an impressive catch to secure the ball and Sheffield were off up the pitch again, but to no avail. Sheffield however, continued to press and were rewarded on 31 minutes with a penalty wide out on the left again, which Donal Collins slotted with no difficulty at all to give Sheffield a slim but deserved lead at 10 points to 7. However, the scores were soon level once more as Sheffield were deemed to have tackled a Castleford player early without the ball and Ian Mattison most ably added the 3 points to tie the match at 10 all on 33 minutes. Just 3 minutes later Sheffield were awarded another penalty on half way, but on this occasion Donal Collins could just not quite manage to add to the score. Then with 38 minutes gone and as before, James Montgomery went scything through the defence and off down the left wing only to be very abruptly brought to a halt by a high tackle. However, the penalty was reversed when the Sheffield players were deemed to have retaliated on his behalf. As the match ran toward half time and into time added for an injury to a Castleford player, Sheffield looked the slightly stronger of the two sides, the game having been played at quite a pace, and as it came to a close Sheffield were awarded a simple penalty and Donal Collins did not disappoint the faithful, and Sheffield led 13 points to 10 at half time.

Sheffield were soon into their stride at the beginning of the second half and were able to stretch the lead with Donal Collins adding penalties after 4 and 10 minutes of the half to increase the lead to 19 points to 10. Sheffield were now much in the ascendancy and were unlucky on a number of occasions to add to their score. However, with 23 minutes of the half gone, a brilliant line from inside centre Ryan Amos split the Castleford defence asunder, with Ryan strolling in near the posts after a great reverse from scrum half, Matthew Poste. However, Collins failed to add the extras, , leaving the score at Sheffield 24, Castleford 10.

Six minutes later a further penalty to Sheffield extended the lead to 27 points to 10, once again through the boot of Donal Collins. Then with just 4 more minutes gone Ryan Amos was the grateful recipient once again after some fine play by the Sheffield backs led to him crashing over on the left. Donal Collins added the conversion and the score had moved out to 34 points to 10. Three minutes later and again after some great handling from the Sheffield backs and forwards, second row Tom White barged his way over to secure the bonus point with the 4th try. Collins again failing to add the extras, but with Sheffield leading by 39 points to 10, it seemed somewhat irrelevant.

Sheffield at his point went a little to sleep and Castleford took full advantage. Sheffield erred and Castleford pushed forward and after some good play between their backs and forwards, they were able to get into the Sheffield 22 and looked exceedingly dangerous. Sheffield however, repulsed the attack until a what looked harmless kick took a cruel bounce right on the try line, leaving scrum half Matthew Poste with no chance to recover and Castleford centre Chris Redfearn pounced to score out on the right. Ian Mattison added the conversion, referee Pearce blew for time and Sheffield had what was in the end a comfortable win and five more points added to their tally for the season.

Substitutes used were:- Tom Womack for Laurence Thomas (76) and Tom Metcalf for Alex Hill (78). Not used, Nick Tomsett.