SIDDAL THROUGH TO THIRD ROUND

Siddal bounced back from last week's gut wrenching and last minute
away defeat to Leigh Miners with a brilliant all round team
performance at NCL Premier rivals East Hull. The win takes Siddal
through to Round 3 and a perhaps another crack at a Championship side.

Easts coaches, Danny Washbrook of Hull FC and Craig Cook, who is
currently interesting Halifax RLFC, have built their side round a big
pack of forwards which, as always, was superbly led by giant prop Lee
Brown with another 80 minute stint. Siddal's pack more than matched
their counterparts with a great defensive effort led superbly by Danny
Williams, Ross White and hooker Craig Sanderson and that enabled
Siddal to capitalise when the East's forwards tired in the latter part
of both halves.

It was the home side who took an early lead after 5 minutes. Siddal
felt the referee was wrong to hand Easts another set off six after a
last tackle kick deflected off a Siddal defender and on the back of
that decision Easts halfback Carl Puckering just managed to reach over
and touchdown despite Siddal fullback Scott Caley's despearte attempt
to hold him up. Puckering also added an easy goal for a 6-0 lead.

The following 10 minutes saw both sides trying to gain some decent
field position with East's kicking game pinning Siddal in their own
half but a huge Williams 'hit' on the young Easts fullback on 15
minutes appeared to galvanise Siddal. Within minutes Siddal drew level
following a Chris Brook half break, some fine handling by Richard
Lopag and Nick Smith who switched the ball back inside to Brook again
and he gave the scoring pass to the supporting Sanderson who scurried
in under the posts. Gareth Blackburn added the simple conversion to
tie the scores at 6 apiece.

Easts regained the lead on minute 25 courtesy of a penalty for holding
down awarded against Jaymes Chapman. Puckering had an easy conversion
from just 17 metres. But it was clear the Easts side were tiring and
Siddal were looking more and more threatening. On the half hour mark
Siddal were deep in their opponents territory, scrum half Shaun Garrod
attacked the Easts defensive line and threw a brilliant inside pass to
the supporting Richard Casanove who wasn't going to be stopped as he
scored under the posts. Blackburn again added an easy conversion to
see Siddal take the lead for the first time at 12-8. Two minutes later
and Siddal were back in. A great 40-20 kick from Brook set the
position up and from the resultant scrum a set piece move saw Garrod
feed Smith who gave the scoring pass to winger Blackburn to touch down
in the left corner. The try scorer couldn't make the difficult
conversion this time but Siddal went to half time 16-8 in front.

Coach Gareth Greenwood demanded a fast and disciplined start to the
second half but for the second week running the reverse occurred.
Conceding an early penalty and then knocking on in their first set
meant Siddal came under immediate pressure and Easts capitalised when
veteran Liam Reid scored close to the posts. Puckering converted again
and the tie was back in the melting pot at 16-14.

Siddal though were showing the more attacking threat as the heavy
pitch and that great defensive stint began to wear down their
opponents. Props Liam Green and Luke Garnett were making great yardage
for Siddal and young forwards White and Sam Graham took the game to
their older and bigger opponents. On 50 minutes Siddal increased their
lead as Stephen Hope dropped onto a great kick to the far right corner
of the Easts in goal area from Brook. Blackburn's goal attempt just
drifted wide but the lead was out to six points and that was pushed
out to a 10 point lead on the hour mark. Garrod ran across the Easts
line teasing then with dummy drop offs and creating enough uncertainty
to allow Gareth Greenwood to feed Blackburn to gain his second try
wide out on the left. The conversion was missed though leaving Siddal
24-14 ahead.

Entering the last phase of the game Siddal appeared to be able to
defend Easts increasingly desperate attempts to get back in the game
most of which were from short last tackle chips which the Siddal
defence cleared up. Siddal had Easts pinned under their own posts and
had produced a great defensive set when they were harshly penalised
for offside on tackle 5. That lifted the stranglehold for Easts and
they went downfield and came back into the tie when Puckering produced
a clever reverse last tackle kick and as a static Siddal defence stood
and watched the Easts loose forward collected the kick and scored
under the posts. Puckering goaled to make the score 24-20 with 10
minutes left.

Siddal were not going to let this one slip though. Richard Lopag made
a great break and put his winger Hope away down the right wing. Hope
drew the fullback but his attempt to produce the scoring inside pass
to Lopag was thwarted by the Easts fullback's fingertips. Siddal
though were at the right end of the field and Easts were soon
penalised for offside. Blackburn added the two points to take Siddal
to 26-20 with just four minutes left on the clock. In the final minute
Easts Reid was finally penalised after somehow managing to go under
the officials radar for persistent offside and foul play. Blackburn
converted and the game ended with Siddal celebrating a great win.

Siddal now look forward to the 3rd round draw on Wednesday evening.