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:-
Team | Scorer | Score | Time | |||||
Percy Park | - | Ash Smith | - | Penalty | 0 | - | 3 | 20 minutes |
Sheffield | - | Leigh Sanders | - | Try | 5 | - | 3 | 33 minutes |
- | Jimmy Pearson | - | Conversion | 7 | - | 3 | 34 minutes | |
HALF TIME | ||||||||
Sheffield | - | Rupert Broadley | - | Try | 12 | - | 3 | 58 minutes |
Sheffield | - | Joe McHale | - | Try | 17 | - | 3 | 67 minutes |
Percy Park | - | John Scott | - | Try | 17 | - | 8 | 74 minutes |
- | John Scott | - | Conversion | 17 | - | 10 | 75 minutes | |
League Table:-
Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | Diff | Bonus | Pts | Adjust | ||
1 | SHEFFIELD | 13 | 11 | 0 | 2 | 355 | 193 | 162 | 10 | 54 | 0 | |
2 | PERCY PARK | 13 | 10 | 0 | 3 | 346 | 194 | 152 | 8 | 48 | 0 | |
3 | WHEATLEY HILLS | 13 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 339 | 258 | 81 | 7 | 45 | 0 | |
4 | ROCHDALE | 13 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 380 | 226 | 154 | 12 | 44 | 0 | |
6 | DINNINGTON | 13 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 311 | 198 | 113 | 5 | 43 | 0 | |
7 | ILKLEY | 13 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 389 | 265 | 124 | 10 | 42 | 0 | |
8 | POCKLINGTON | 13 | 6 | 0 | 7 | 247 | 213 | 34 | 7 | 31 | 0 | |
9 | WEST HARTLEPOOL | 13 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 235 | 275 | -40 | 4 | 30 | 0 | |
10 | NORTHERN | 13 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 292 | 371 | -79 | 3 | 29 | 0 | |
11 | BRADFORD & BINGLEY | 13 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 282 | 273 | 9 | 7 | 27 | 0 | |
5 | ALNWICK | 13 | 5 | 0 | 8 | 258 | 315 | -57 | 4 | 24 | 0 | |
12 | DRIFFIELD | 13 | 3 | 0 | 10 | 212 | 346 | -134 | 8 | 20 | 0 | |
13 | OLD CROSSLEYANS | 13 | 3 | 0 | 10 | 250 | 305 | -55 | 6 | 18 | 0 | |
14 | HORDEN | 13 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 144 | 608 | -464 | 1 | 1 | 0 |