Sheffield 31 - 7 Gateshead RFC

Sheffield 31 - 7 Gateshead

Team Selection - 21st April 2012

15. Ewan Reed
14. James Montgomery
13. Joe Cribley
12. Simon Tillyer
11. Tom Metcalf
10. Donal Collins
9. Matt Poste

1. Andy Gravil
2. Carl Mortimer
3. Ramzey Adamo
4. John Dudley
5. Tom White
6. Laurence Thomas
7. Martin Balshaw
8. Andy Kelly ……..… (Capt)

16. Will Bennett
17. James Ferguson
18. Ryan Amos

After the debacle that was our trip to Malton & Norton when we metaphorically ‘never got off the bus’, we welcomed the already relegated Gateshead RFC for what should have been the last match of the season. We saw Andy Gravil move from tight head prop to loose in the absence of Tommy (Fats) Marples and Ramzey Adamo move off the bench to take over at tight head, with young Will Bennett taking over on the bench as front row cover. James Ferguson maintained his place on the bench where he was joined by former captain Ryan Amos, making his 1st XV debut for the season after a prolonged period of injury and a few run-outs with the impressive 2nd XV.

Sheffield began impressively and dominated the early exchanges and it all looked good for an early score when the ball found its way to Tom Metcalf on the wing who powered his way up field leaving bodies in his wake. However, Sheffield somehow managed to turn the ball over to Gateshead, who have never shirked an opportunity to attack, which they did from well inside their 22, moving the ball swiftly to the right and catching the Sheffield defence having 40 winks and for their wing Scott Cartner to run past the defence and score under the posts. So with just 8 minutes gone and a conversion from fly-half Jonathan Foster, Sheffield trailed by 7 points.

The battle raged and Gateshead did not look like a side who had been relegated, and Sheffield found their defence impenetrable, until that is, with 24 minutes played the Gateshead 7, Ian Carr found himself on his way to the sin-bin after referee Bird decided that there had been too much offending at the breakdown in the ‘red zone’ and Carr was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Sheffield with little or no thought of a kick at goal, leashed the attack for centre Simon Tillyer to crash over for a try, Donal Collins converted and the scores were tied at 7 all. Gateshead with a man down looked a little shaky and a couple of simple handling errors gifted possession to Sheffield just outside the Gateshead 22. Donal Collins somehow eluded a couple of tacklers near the left touch line and managed to find his way to the try line in the corner. The conversion went perilously close, but not close enough, and with 28 minutes gone, Sheffield had moved out to a 12 point to 7 lead.

Gateshead were however, far from out of the game and Sheffield had to defend stoutly on a number of occasions. Sheffield themselves had a few opportunities with wingers, Tom Metcalf and James (Moose) Montgomery both having runs out of defence that could have led to scores. In the end however, it was scrum half Matt Poste who would break the deadlock, after impressive work from the pack to turn the ball over. Donal Collins converted and with half time looming Sheffield had moved out to 19 points to 7.

The early encounters of the second half belonged to Gateshead, whose half time team talk had obviously told them that the match was there to be won and only some very resolute defence from Sheffield kept Gateshead at bay. Sheffield lost centre Joe Cribley to injury on 47 minutes, (Shoulder again), replaced Ramzey Adamo in the front row with Will Bennett (56 minutes) and then lost second row Tom White to injury on 63 minutes to be replaced by James Ferguson. The changes obviously worked well, because Martin Balshaw added the bonus point try just two minutes later on 65 minutes. Donal Collins could not add the extras, but Sheffield had moved out to a 24 point to 7 lead. Five minutes later, after a flowing move up the field, replacement James Ferguson went over for the 5th try wide out on the left and with Donal Collins converting magnificently the score was 31 points to 7.

Sheffield were now fully in control and Gateshead looked to have lost their drive and passion. There were one or two instances of indiscipline from the Gateshead pack resulting in a number of penalties to Sheffield in this late period of the game, the last of which unfortunately saw a Gateshead prop dismissed with a red card on 78 minutes. The referee played a couple of minutes of stoppage time and then we were all allowed to decamp to the bar for further analysis of what we all thought wee had seen.

We look forward to the last match of the season when we entertain the students of Team Northumbria in the re-arranged game from the 31st March when they had been unable to field a team. Team Northumbria have had a hard season and following their beating of Sheffield 2 years ago in the play-offs, they have suffered the loss of much of their squad, much of it to other local clubs in the Northumberland and Durham area. Team Northumbria like Gateshead were relegated before any of this weekend fixtures were played.

Replacements:-

Ryan Amos for Joe Cribley (47)
Will Bennett for Ramzey Adamo (56)
James Ferguson for Tom White (63)

Scores and scorers for Sheffield:-

Try - Simon Tillyer, Conversion - Donal Collins (25)
Try - Donal Collins (28)
Try - Matt Poste, Conversion - Donal Collins (28)
Try - Martin Balshaw (65)
Try - James Ferguson, Conversion - Donal Collins (70)