After slow start Heath put Vandals to the Sword

Team:

1. Dance   2. Puttick   3. Morley   4. James

5. Owen    6. Wilby 7.Dawes 8. Davies

9. Cole 10. Reynolds 11.Wilkinson 12 Malik 13 Webb 14 Bruce 15 Harriott-Brown

Replacements: Burbidge, Whitworth

Freezing temperatures combined with being demoted to Vandals 2nd team pitch made this a fixture for the hardy, both from a playing and spectating point of view. With Coach Baxter still recovering from Bird Flu, the team was left to manage itself once again. Your intrepid reporter managed to write a few lines whilst battling frostbite so forgive the brevity once again.

Vandals forward line started the game off in familiar fashion, with the home game having been a tight affair (Heath winning 5-3) they battered Heaths pack in early pressure. With Heath failing to make use of their speedy backs, it soon became a war of attrition with hard hits being put in from both sides. Dawes lost a contact lens early on, to some dubious eye contact and Wilby also suffered a nasty eye injury through hard tackling.

Soon tactics switched, with Cole putting through some probing kicks. Wilkinson was unlucky in a chase to the 22, but from the Heath lineout Puttick was able to force a drive through, resulting in a Heath scrum. Malik was released on a run and he manage to score to the left of the posts. Cole converted the chance 0-7

Unfortunately, Heath were their own worst enemy with a series of errors resulting in a penalty in their half. Vandals took the lineout on the 5m and easily powered through the defence to score. They were unable to convert 5-7.

Next Vandals lost a player to the sin bin for a high tackle on Wilkinson, but Heath lost the resulting lineout to allow a clearance to the 22. Heath set themselves again and a drive from the set piece was stopped illegally given another penalty chance. Heath chose to drive with Morley picking up the ball, the ball made its way wide to Puttick once again who released the overlapping Bruce for a try in at the corner. Cole converted the very difficult chance 5-14

Heath were now in their stride, from the restart kicks were exchanged resulting in Harriett-Brown catching the ball inside his own 22. Seeing a clear field to the right of him he outpaced his marker only to find a No8 ahead of him. He crossed under the posts, barley having to rise above a jog. Cole again converted.  5-21

Vandals were starting to look a beaten side , soon after another great back move found Reynolds wide , he waited until the last moment to release Harriett-Brown again to run through unopposed for another quick score , this was also converted by Cole . 5 -28

After half time, Heath again applied pressure, from a kick through Wilkinson broke and scored outwide. 5-33, the difficult chance was missed.

The next part of the game was unfortunately dominated by yellow cards with Heath playing most of the last 30 minutes with 14 or 13 men. It was to our credit that we not only kept Vandals to one single score but manage to cross once more ourselves.  With Burbidge and Whitworth both providing renewed energy for Malik and James, Heath tackled themselves into the ground. Vandal’s attacks were repelled time after time despite numerical advantage. From a brief respite Burbidge manage to work through the defence and score, Cole missed the conversion. 5-38

Shortly after the ref blew for time.

Another great win against a side that ran us so close at home, unfortunately though several injuries were sustained leaving both Davies and ever present Dawes extremely doubtful for the Crossleyans game. Luckily the impressive Morley had better news on the injury front. Heath need to show strength in depth next week

Full Time Heath 38– Vandals