Pocklington RUFC 0 - 26 Sheffield RUFC

Pocklington RUFC 0 - 26 Sheffield RUFC

Starting Line Up - 29th November 2014

15. Joe Cribley
14. Rupert Broadley
13. Rob Conville
12. Leigh Sanders
11. Joe McHale
10. Jimmy Pearson
9. Ben Parker

1. Ben Whitney
2. Tommy Marples
3. Tony Stringwell
4. Ryan Seabright
5. Dom Parsons
6. Alex Fawdry
7. Matt Adcock
8. Johnny France

Replacements
16. Jamie Blackburn
17. Joe Carrington
18. Alastair Womack

This week’s team saw the absence of full back Andy Hodgson and centres Gareth Morley, together with hooker Sam Whitworth and open-side flanker Tom Womack. Prop forward Tommy Marples moved to hooker, Tony Stringwell replaced Dan Rylance at tight head prop and Ben Whitney came in to loose-head prop in place of Marples, with Matt Adcock taking over at open-side flanker. Leigh Sanders and Rob Conville came in as the centres with Joe McHale taking on the left wing whilst Ali Womack dropped to the bench. Also joining the squad on the bench were prop Jamie Blackburn and Joe Carrington from last season’s Colts. Finally Alex Fawdry and Ryan Seabright swapped positions at second row and blind side flanker.

The early exchanges in this important encounter saw no one side dominating as both teams struggled to hold on to possession for any real length of time and with Sheffield on occasions trying far to hard to force the pace few scoring opportunities were created. The first kickable penalty went the way of Pocklington on 14 minutes when Sheffield were deemed to have not released the player in the tackle, but a relatively easy opportunity for 3 points was spurned. Sheffield’s opportunity arrived 3 minutes later for off side at the ruck, but scrum half Ben Parker sent the kick wide. Pocklington had a second opportunity on 22 minutes, but again the opportunity went wide. Four minutes later Sheffield were able to add the first points, when from a line out in the corner on the right, following a penalty, Joe McHale was able to go clear and score wide out on the left. The conversion was missed, but Sheffield had the lead at 5 points to nil. Slowly Sheffield began to get the measure of the Pocklington defence, but were still unable to actually breach it and the score at half time remained unchanged.

Ben Parker went off at half time with a bump to the head. He was replaced by Ali Womack on the wing with Joe McHale generally taking on the Scrum half duties. Sheffield appeared to have raised their game and with just 6 minutes of the half gone Sheffield kicked into the corner on the left and drove over from the resulting line out with try to number 6, Alex Fawdry. Jimmy Pearson took over the kicking duties and added the conversion for Sheffield to lead by 12 points to nil with 7 minutes gone. Sheffield managed to spurn several other opportunities, some due to their own errors and some due to some very determined Pocklington defence, with their full back, Jack Fletcher, prominent in much of their defence.

However, the pressure from Sheffield was relentless and with 23 minutes of the half gone, right wing Rupert Broadley escaped the clutches of the Pocklington defence to score out on the right. Once again Jimmy Pearson added the conversion and the lead was out to 19 points to nil. The game looked certain to end with that score, until with just two minutes to go, Jimmy Pearson showed some of the pace and elusiveness from another era, eluding the defence from deep in his own half before ‘sprinting’ clear to score under the posts. He added the conversion and Sheffield had an unassailable lead at 26 points to nil and the four try bonus point and we all retired to Pocklington’s newly refurbished bar to celebrate or commiserate, dependent on who one was supporting.

Scoring:-