Another gloriously sunny day saw Sheffield play host to Old Rishworthians in a re-arranged fixture from last years postponement.
Sheffield who were nursing a number of injuries and consequently had a hatful of players unable to play opened the door to three under 17 players namely James Hall, Conor Mullaney and Kareem Eissa who all played for at least 35 minutes and performed extremely well - which is positive for the club as a whole.
The game started off with a bit of a stalemate with both sides committed and providing solid defensive platforms. The game ebbed and flowed with some good passages of play from both sides. However Sheffield broke the deadlock on 20 minutes with Ed Topley going over for the first try of the game with Ben White converting. Sheffield were starting to get the upper hand and camped out for many minutes on the Old Rish line - even threatening to score with several charge downs. Louis Gilder nearly scored but lost control of the ball as he went over but moments later Nat Walters extended the lead with a well worked try. HT 12-0
The second half saw a raft of changes most notably with Kareem Eissa coming on as scrum half. The game was again somewhat of a stalemate for the first ten minutes until Mike Crehan on a charge, knocked several players out of his way (one quite convincingly) and crashed over the line. with Ben White converting. By now Sheffield were in the ascendancy and Sam Veall grabbed a lovely try just minutes later with a typically graceful glide over the Old Rish line. This was followed up by a try by James Hall on his Senior Colt debut - which sadly started some bickering amongst the Old Rish players. This was a shame to see as they had performed pretty admirably up to that point and never gave in.
As the game drew to a close Ben White scored an intercept try to round up the scoring. The footnote is that Old Rish very nearly scored right at the death with a superb attacking move that was foiled by a last gasp Ed Topley tackle - following which the game ended.
It was an enjoyable game and Old Rish certainly more than contributed - next up though is the second round in the national cup against Kettering - good luck to all involved.