A close call, but the U16s go through to quarter finals.

Heath U16s went through to 1/4 finals of Yorkshire Cup after a tight contest in South Yorkshire. Whilst Heath welcomed back their Yorkshire duo of Sam Pollard and Peter Birkett, it was the home side that came out of the traps fastest, straight away putting the West Vale boys under pressure. From this start, Dinnington’s big forwards bossed things up front with the visitors, uncharacteristically, missing tackles all around the park. The pressure told, the home side sensed this and were first over the line with a well-worked try out wide. Dinnington 7 – Heath 0. Heath managed to get good field position from the restart and good lineout work from James Wilkinson and Richard Brambles allowed the visitor’s forwards to put some phases together and then release their talented back-line. Next, Ezra Hinchliffe threw a couple of dummies and scored a great solo try under the sticks. He converted this to make it 7 apiece, with no further score up to half time. In the break, Coaches Hetherington and Smurthwaite had words with their squad but on the restart, whilst Heath were playing down the slope and should have had the advantage, it was the home side that had the upper hand and were causing Heath problems with a good kicking game and ball retention. Heath were making far too many mistakes and only good tackling from Sam Gardiner with Luke Matthews kept the hosts at bay. Next, a penalty was awarded for killing the ball and Wilkinson was yellow carded. The penalty was kicked for a 10 - 7 lead to Dinnington. Time was running out and, with only ten minutes left, Heath eventually put the home side under the cosh with Jack Sheldrake and Pollard finding gaps in their defence. After some good support play, Hinchliffe burst through to race over for another great try, again converted by himself, taking the visitors to a 14 – 10 lead. Then Heath had the final say, with a try from their Yorkshire scrumhalf Birkett. Whilst the extras weren’t taken, they finished 19 – 10 victors. Heath were given a real scare in this one and will need to concentrate and play consistently from the off, if they are to go further in this year’s competition.