Still not lost in 6 games. Heath narrowly miss a win.

Selection:

Cook, Puttick, Heron, Dance, Beasty, Dawes, Wilkinson, Ward, Rowntree, Brown, Whitworth, Thomson, Bruce, Granger, Cadogen.
Subs: Haigh, Sharp, Burbidge, & Horner.

Scorers:

Tries: Bruce & Cook.
Con: Thomson.

Report:

Heath made the short trip to Copley, looking to continue their impressive run of wins. In a tough battle, both teams had to settle for a draw.

The visitors started well and put pressure on the hosts line for the opening quarter of the game. Matthew Wilkinson started well but succumbed to his ankle injury early, with the impressive Carter Haigh entering the game. Matt Beasty, Oliver Cook, Richard Dance and George Heron all carried hard and set a great platform throughout. Harry Granger thought he’d opened the scoring from a cut out pass from Si Brown, the referee ruling it out for a forward pass. New signing, Zak Thomson played his second game in the centre, earning back player of the match with some powerful surges and strong defence.

After a couple of near misses, it came down to a Rishies mistake, a charged down kick was collected by Jack Bruce who scampered clear for his sixth try of the season, Thomson converted. The Heath pack dominated the scrums and withstood sustained amount of pressure with excellent defence led by Brook Ward, Max Dawes and skipper Mark Puttick. Dance made a great turn over and Brown cleared long. Half time 0-7.

Sam Sharp made a welcome return, replacing Dawes. As both teams battled for the next score, Rishies relied on their 10’s huge boot to clear danger and set up good positions. After an injury in the front row, Rishies now needed the scrum to go uncontested, removing an aspect of the game where Heath were dominant.

From deep, Ward and Max Rowntree combined before the final pass was knocked down. However, amid the confusion the referee deemed this to be played by the defenders chest and allowed play to continue and awarded a controversial try. Rishies followed this up with their second try, from an overthrown lineout Heath switched off and allowed the catcher to turn and run unopposed to the line for a converted try.

Heath had it all to do as both sides looked to get on top. Youngster Sam Horner, showed his potential with an excellent second half, hitting hard and carrying well above his weight. Phil Cadogen, Granger and stand in winger James Whitworth were pressured with kicks but returned them well. Thomson made a couple of bruising runs and Brown tipped on to Cook and Beasty who carried hard.

From a lineout 10 metres out, Oli Burbidge went close before Cook continued his brilliant try scoring form, powering over from close range to tie the scores. As both sides went in search of the winning score, Ward saw yellow for a scuffle in midfield, with Heath receiving a penalty on halfway. Cook lined up the kick which would have won the game, unfortunately drifting agonisingly wide. Full time 12-12.

Heath remain unbeaten in their last 6 games and now focus their attention to next week’s visitors Moortown.
UTH 👊