Heath march on in curtailed game

1. Cook. 6. Dawes. 11. Lawton. 16. K Raby 2. Barnes. 7. Wilkinson. 12. Webb. 17 Malik 3. Kerr. 8. Neilly. 13 Giraud. 18 Cartwright 4. Dance 9. Reynolds. 14 Hinchcliffe 5. Bagley. 10. Gleeson (c). 15 Collinge Heath 2nds started a run of four home games, with the return fixtures against Huddersfield. Having lost out narrowly at their ground earlier in season, Heath were keen to keep up the winning run after last week’s triumph. Several absentees caused coaches Baxter and Taylor to ring changes once again. The welcome return of Kerr and Bagley’s move into the pack, filled in for J Raby and Whitworth, and Collinge replaced Berridge at full back. In poor conditions, Heath kicked off. The ball was secured early on by Heaths pack, who largely dominated their opponents for the match. Dance, Neilly and Dawes had several drives to gain ground, allowing Reynolds to eventually release Webb who broke Huddersfield's back line and passed to Gleeson who ran in an early score under the posts, he then converted. 7-0 Huddersfield, as expected came back strong, they forced Heath back into their 22, with strong drives. Heath defended strongly though, Kerr led by example blocking further drives, and Huddersfield were forced to spread wide, to try and get over the gain line. The Heath backs mirrored the example of the pack, and pressure forced Huddersfield to knock on. Gleeson released a booming kick from the scrum, and a lineout was taken on the 22. Heath turned the ball over and the ball made its way to Giraud who knocked on in the tackle, and the scrum allowed clearance. A series of knock on’s were then exchanged in a messy passage of play, and no side was dominating. The weather conditions continued to deteriorate, with a mixture of blizzard, hail and rain making flowing rugby difficult. However from another scrum, the ball was chipped through and our opponents were caught offside near their 22. Gleeson, took the penalty option which was scored, moving the score to 10-0. From the kick off, Barnes managed to trap the ball, but it went forward, Huddersfield knocked on and a Heath scrum was awarded. Gleeson once again cleared for a lineout about 10m out and it was time to put their lineout under pressure again. Huddersfield failed to secure quality ball, and their fly half sliced a kick straight out to touch. Lineout tactics were changed and Dawes took the ball off the top, after an excellent throw in by Wilkinson. Quick hands delivered the ball to Hinchcliffe, who tried a neat chip, but unluckily it went straight to touch. Huddersfield, although winning the lineout, threw a wild pass that went behind their backs, they managed to kick the ball back into their try area but their centre was tackled in goal by Reynolds and Webb, resulting in a Heath 5m scrum. Both packs held strong and Reynolds moved the ball once again to Hinchcliffe, but the pass was slightly forward. Tension was building, as Heath were failing to add points from these chances, this was exacerbated several minutes later, when a loose pass was intercepted by the Huddersfield centre. Outpacing Lawton and Giraud, he just managed to touch down to the right of the posts. The conversion was missed, and only 5 mins remained until the break. Heath looked disheartened by the slip, but held strong. At half time, the coaches made use of the strong bench with, Raby, Malik and Cartwright, replacing Bagley, Lawton and Collinge. Heath started the 2nd period strong again, an early knock on by Huddersfield, allowed Neilly to drive off the base of the scrum. Kerr recycled and drive further up field supported by Dance, it looked like Webb had crossed for a score outside, but he was stopped short. Again a further phase was driven forward by the forwards and Cook burst through for a try just to right of the posts. Gleeson was unable to take the extra points, in the swirling wind. So the score had moved to 15-5 Heath continued to exert dominance from the kick-off. Malik and Webb were enjoying space in the centre and any clearance kicks were returned by Cartwright. Wilkinson then had an excellent run curtailed by an accidental offside, when he ran into his own player. Huddersfield secured the scrum, although the ball squirted out from behind the back row, and from the resulting ruck, created by a further Cartwright run, a uddersfield player sustained a serious neck injury, the referee discussed with both Captains, after ten minutes of treatment, and in the absence of another pitch, the game was ended. Another great performance against a team, which will be there or there abouts at the end of the season. Hopefully our injured opponent was not too seriously hurt.