Back to winning ways for Heath v undefeated table toppers

Team: 1. Morley 2. Puttick© 3. Kerr 4. Dance 5. Barnes 6. Dawes 7. Wilkinson 8. Raby 9. Cole 10. Reynolds 11. Harriot-Brown 12 Malik 13 Bruce 14 Brown 15 Cockroft Replacements: Whitworth, Owen, Davies, Hinchcliffe. Heath travelled to Copley still smarting from a loss against undefeated Huddersfield. Rishworthians were riding,unbeaten, high at the top of the table, although they had played several matches more. If Heath were to stay in touch a victory was a must. Rishworthians started very strongly and showed touches of why they were leading the pack, Heath took their time once again to get going, but strong defence from the pack, kept our opponents out. Early penalties were conceded and the referee warned Heath and both coaches about the need to retain discipline. Rishies would count themselves unlucky not to have made the most of their 10 minutes of dominance, but as Heath have shown in previous tight encounters, they do not give away points easily. Heath then started to turn the game on its head, the pack was applying huge pressure to the opposing pack and several Rishies players were slow to regain their feet after huge hits. This started to give a platform to release out pacey backline, for several strong runs. After a few exchanges of ball, Heaths pack forced a penalty from a lineout on the Rish 22 for holding on, but Rishies turned the lineout over, and kicked through, the ball was cleared back by Cole into a huge hole behind the Rishies backs, and the sprint was on for Harriot-Brown to easily outpace his opponent and showing excellent footballing skills, he dribbled the ball over the line for the opening score. Cole missed the difficult conversion out-wide. 0-5 Rishies looked shell shocked, maybe not having been behind all season. Puttick collected the restart and ran the ball back, Wilkinson was on hand to evade several tackles, passing eventually to Harriot-Brown who was tackled into touch on the 22. Rishies lineout secured the ball and Cole spread the ball wide, and then S Brownchipped through. The ball was returned by Rishies to Cockroft who setup a run involving Malik and then Bruce who was unfortunate to knock on. Again, Rishies attacked from the scrum but the move was stopped by an excellent tackle by S. Brown who then hacked through, the Rishies Full Back was taken into touch on his 22. Dawes secured the ball from the attacking lineout and Cole passed via Reynolds to Malik who was only stopped with an illegal high tackle. Cole took the penalty in front of the posts to move the score to 0- 8. The restart went straight into touch and Raby ran the ball forward from the scrum. Reynolds kicked through and the chasing Wilkinson drove the defender into touch. The lineout was again rock solid, Cole saw the opportunity to again exploit space and chipped through for the on rushing S Brown to collect the bounce, and cross the try line again. Being under the posts Cole was able to secure the extras 0 - 15 Reynolds this time collected the restart, Wilkinson made another break but was stopped by great Rishies forward work, however they were penalised for being off feet and Cole had another slightly more difficult chance to keep the scoreboard ticking over, he slotted home for 0-18. Rishies knocked on from the restart, and Heath secured the scrum. Wilkinson chased through again and forced an infringement from the chasing Rishies player, which the ref adjudged worthy of a yellow card. Rishies still fought hard and turned the scrum over, but again strong tackles in the backs forced another knock on. Reynolds received the ball from the scrum and Malik and the inform Bruce combined, with the latter selling a great dummy to the outside, to open space which he darted through to cross for a further score which was converted by Cole 0 - 25 Shortly after the ref blew for half time. Half Time Rishworthians 0 – Heath 25 Cole asked for a similar huge effort in the 2nd Period, Rishies were seen to beef up their Pack from their well-stocked bench, and were obviously worried about the platform our forwards were providing the excellent and mobile backs. Hinchcliffe came on for the tiring S Brown. Rishies kicked off, and Raby was immediately back in the fray running the ball back into contact. The ball was held up and Rishies showed renewed power, putting the Heath scrum under pressure. Barnes left the field to injury and was replaced by Owen. Rishies constructed several drives but Heath won a penalty when they were adjudged to have held on the ground. Cole kicked to the 5m line, Heath failed to capitalise being adjudged off feet. Rishies secured the scrum and the ball was cleared, they also turned the ball over from the lineout but failed to make any ground due to ferocious defence from Puttick, Morley,Dance and Owen. Wilkinson left the field for Davies at Flanker, who had an immediate impact, adding extra control to the scrum. Although still driven back Raby cleared up the ball and another huge kick allowed Harriot-Brown and Bruce to chase. The ball was fumbled by the defender under pressure and in his efforts to recover he blocked Harriot-Brown, and the referee gave a penalty Try (securing the bonus point). Cole took the extras 0-32. Heath were keeping the play in the Rishies Half, allowing them only to release pressure with kicks which were each time returned with interest. With the opponent’s replacements continuing to exert pressure in the pack, Heath showed that their backs could also mix it up when needed. Ensuring that they were kept moving around the pitch. Kerr, who has excelled in the forwards , in his first match back from a shoulder injury left the pitch for Whitworth. There was a huge effort to keep the score to nil as we had done several times this season. Rishies passed up the chance of certain penalty score in front of the posts, looking instead to go for the lineout for a higher score. Several penalties were given for Heath infringements but Rishies could not break through. With a kick helping to relieve pressure, Heath took another excellent chance. Hinchcliffe found space after the ball was run back by Cockroft, he kicked through and again Hinchliffe was on hand to run in the final Try. The conversion was missed 0-37 A Rishies replacement was then called onto the field of play and red carded for something said in back play. Rishies held on for the last few minutes and never gave up, ending the match again with several forward drives that were repelled. Shortly after the ref blew for full time. This was possibly the best performance all season with both backs and forwards working well to apply pressure to a well drilled Rishies side. The return in early 2017 will certainly be one of the matches of the season … let’s keep it up as next week we entertain inform Vandals Rishworthians 0 – Heath 37