Tough game against good opposition

1 Heron 2 Puttick 3 Whitworth 4 Dance 5 Fairbank 6 Milner 7 Dawes 8 Ward 9 Reynolds 10 Cole 11 Thornton 12 Bruce 13 Greenwood 14 Griffiths 15 Cockroft 16 Morley 17 Myers

Heath kicked off down the hill with W.Dale's large mobile pack setting the platform early with some strong drives. Mark Puttick went off injured with James Myers replacing him in the front row. Heath struggled to contain them and found themselves 12 points adrift from two well worked tries from their pack. Against the run of play a long pass was picked off by young winger Jack Thornton who sprinted eighty metres to score, Richard Cole added the simple conversion. Things got better as Heath took the lead, from a turnover deep in Heath's 22 the ball was quickly shifted wide to Tom Cockroft who kicked long, Jack Bruce showed his pace, winning the race for the ball and touching down, Cole converted. When in possession, Heath looked dangerous with Danny Greenwood making a number of good breaks.

The half ended as it begun with 'Dale punching holes and capitalising on good territory, scoring two more tries. Half time 24-14.

Craig Morley replaced young Ben Fairbank.

The start of the second half was poor from Heath and 'Dale scored three tries with little response and took the game away from Heath. However, some strong words and positive play from the visiting team saw them gain a try scoring bonus point. Adam Milner lead the fightback with some strong carries. Richard Dance then dragged a number of defenders over the line to score from tap penalty, 20 metres out, Cole converted from the touchline. The home side completed their scoring before man of the match Michael Reynolds, who was excellent all game, broke from a scrum on half way chipped the full back and regathered to score an unconverted try. 

This was a tough game against good opposition. The way the lads responded in the second half was a credit to the team and this will stand the team in good shape for the visit of Bradford & Bingley.