1st XV
Matches
Sat 06 Dec 2014  ·  North One East
SHEFFIELD RUFC - 1902
1st XV
Tries: L Sanders, R Broadley, J McHaleConversions: J Pearson
17
10
Percy Park
Tries: J ScottConversions: J ScottPenalties: A Smith
Sheffield RUFC  17  -  10  Percy Park

Sheffield RUFC 17 - 10 Percy Park

Roger Keegan11 Dec 2014 - 21:25
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Sheffield battle hard to win against their closest rivals and maintain their plase at the top of the league with half t he season gone.

Sheffield RUFC 17 - 10 Percy Park RFC

Starting Line Up - 6th December 2014

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

1. Tommy Marples
2. Charlie Hargreaves
3. Tony Stringwell
4. Dom Parsons
5. Ben Whitney
6. Alex Fawdry
7. Matt Adcock
8. Jonny France

Replacements
16. Dan Rylance
17. Andy Hodgson
18. Alastair Womack

Following the excellent win away to Pocklington last week there were few changes required to the team, but this week at least saw Sheffield have a hooker in the front row as opposed to 3 prop forwards. Charlie Hargreaves came in at hooker for his first appearance in the league, his only other appearance being in the Yorkshire Cup. Tommy Marples moved from hooker to loose head prop and Ben Whitney moved from prop to second row in place of Ryan Seabright who was unavailable. Rob Conville dropped out of the squad to be replaced at centre by Gareth Morley and the replacements saw our colts, Jamie Blackburn and Joe Carrington replaced by Dan Rylance and Andy Hodgson. Jimmy Pearson was making his 200th appearance in the first team.

Games between first and second in North One East are rarely going to be easy to dominate, unless one side has failed to ‘turn up’ and so no one expected a runaway victory. The early exchanges were well contested by both sides and whilst Percy Park may have just shade the possession, Sheffield showed more inventiveness, but neither side was in the mood to concede a point to the opposition. Sheffield had not conceded a point in their last two matches, but this was to come to an end, when Percy Park were awarded a penalty just 10 metres out and after 20 minutes or so, Percy Park’s fly half added 3 points.

The battle raged on with neither side giving any quarter, but with 33 minutes gone Sheffield were on the attack and inside centre, Leigh Sanders literally bludgeoned his way over the line to score just to the right of the Percy Park posts. Fly half Jimmy Pearson added the conversion and Sheffield had taken the lead at 7 points to 3. With the half coming to a close, Percy Park had on last chance to reduce the arrears, but the penalty, in front of the post, but 45 metre out fell short and Sheffield were able to clear their line and go into half time with a slender lead.

The second half started no less competitively, with both sides being pressured in to errors, but with six minutes of the half gone, Sheffield were given the opportunity to restore the seven point lead. However, Jimmy Pearson’s radar was out of order and the frustration from the failure was all too apparent. The some twelve minutes later Sheffield were awarded another penalty, which on this occasion was taken quickly, Percy Park were caught out of position and right wing Rupert Broadley was given the opportunity to do what he does best, turn on the after burners and leave the defence scrambling in vain to lay hands on him and scoring Sheffield’s second try on the right. Jimmy Pearson could not add the somewhat difficult conversion, but Sheffield had opened up a slightly more comfortable lead at 12 points to 3.

Despite the extremely competitive nature of the match, Percy Park had not been able to truly threaten Sheffield’s line to score a try. However, Sheffield’s defence had been outstanding, much to the frustration of both the Percy Park players and supporters. With sixty seven minutes gone Sheffield managed to open up the Percy Park defence again and Joe McHale was able to get over in the corner on the left. Percy Park protested that they had held him up over the line, but referee Dean Walker was convinced the try had been scored. Jimmy Pearson was again unable to add the conversion, but the lead was out to 17 points to 3 with just over ten minutes to go.

At his point I’m sure Sheffield would have settled for the referee calling time but they had to battle on and as often happens, the excellent Sheffield defence was bound to make a mistake, and so it was, with just 6 minutes to go, Percy Park had managed to get themselves on the attack close to the Sheffield line, and after a period of rebuffing the attack, the Percy Park scrum half, John Scott, picked up at the back of a ruck and found an enormous gap at the side of the ruck through which he was able to amble to score a try under the posts. Fully aware that time was running out, Scott dropped kicked the conversion himself and the lead was reduced to 17 points to 10 with barely five minutes to go. Sheffield decided the best policy would be to drop out long and make Percy Park come from deep. Sheffield managed to keep them in their own half and after and exchange of penalties, Sheffield had an opportunity to add three points from a penalty with the last kick of the match and take away Percy Park’s bonus point, but decided that discretion was the name of the game. A missed penalty may have given Percy Park an opportunity of one last attack and a possibility of a draw. The ball was kicked to touch and Sheffield were able to take a long deep well deserved breath and celebrate an very hard fought win.

Scoring:-

TeamScorerScoreTime
Percy Park-Ash Smith-Penalty0-320 minutes
Sheffield-Leigh Sanders-Try5-333 minutes
-Jimmy Pearson-Conversion7-334 minutes
HALF TIME
Sheffield-Rupert Broadley-Try12-358 minutes
Sheffield-Joe McHale-Try17-367 minutes
Percy Park-John Scott-Try17-874 minutes
-John Scott-Conversion17-1075 minutes

League Table:-

TeamPWDLFADiffBonusPtsAdjust
1SHEFFIELD13 11 0 2 355 193 162 10 54 0
2PERCY PARK13 10 0 3 346 194 152 8 48 0
3WHEATLEY HILLS13 9 1 3 339 258 81 7 45 0
4ROCHDALE13 8 0 5 380 226 154 12 44 0
6DINNINGTON13 9 1 3 311 198 113 5 43 0
7ILKLEY13 8 0 5 389 265 124 10 42 0
8POCKLINGTON13 6 0 7 247 213 34 7 31 0
9WEST HARTLEPOOL13 6 1 6 235 275 -40 4 30 0
10NORTHERN13 6 1 6 292 371 -79 3 29 0
11BRADFORD & BINGLEY13 4 2 7 282 273 9 7 27 0
5ALNWICK13 5 0 8 258 315 -57 4 24 0
12DRIFFIELD13 3 0 10 212 346 -134 8 20 0
13OLD CROSSLEYANS13 3 0 10 250 305 -55 6 18 0
14HORDEN13 0 0 13 144 608 -464 1 1 0

Match details

Match date

Sat 06 Dec 2014

Kickoff

14:15

Meet time

13:00

Competition

North One East
Team overview
Further reading

Team Sponsors

Sponsor - Bowring Transport Ltd
Key Sponsor - Cafeology
Key Sponsor - Charles Day Steels
sponsor - Jaguar Estates
Key Sponsor  - Henry Boot
Club Sponsor - Eadon Lockwood & Riddle
Club Sponsor - CFC Financial Services
Main club sponsor - Wilson Field