Heath 3rds. A dreadful summer of weather has given way to a perfect autumn, and this fixture saw yet another game kick off in perfect conditions. The thirds had given up four regulars to the seconds but were fortunate to field the returning Hampshire and Kershaw in the centres together with Bottomley at 10. There was a debut for Gary Hare, and Marcus Raby was pressed into service for a guest appearance, joining Dave Allan and Andy Parkin on the bench.
Heath were stripped of their regular lineout jumpers, and gambled from the start on an innovative strategy of posting the wingers in the lineout. It was a pleasant surprise that wingers Barnes and Hare took to the lineout like seasoned forwards, and Jimmy Li was throwing with metronomic accuracy and so giving Heath plenty of possession.
Another feature of the match right from the kick were the early markers placed by the opposing three quarters, and the large crowd were on notice that heavy tackling would be a feature of todays fixture. Hampshire in particular, playing in his early career position of centre, showed plenty of skills acquired in the last decade playing flanker, and he repeatedly held the opposition player up in the tackle which allowed the tireless engine room of Hanks, Hannah and Tolan to wrestle plenty of precious turnover ball to Heath’s benefit.
Heath opened the scoring after a sustained period of pressure near the Dinnington line, which saw some accurate close quarter passing and support between the forwards culminate with a great offload from Jimmy Li to put Paddy Kerr over in the corner for his second try in two games. Bottomley missed the conversion to leave the score at 5 – 0.
The half wound towards the interval as an absorbing arm wrestle, with neither side having a clear scoring opportunity until Dinnington made good use of an overlap to go in at the corner. The Dinnington halfback then kicked a great conversion from the touchline to take the score to 7 – 5 in the visitors favour. The whistle sounded shortly after for the halftime break.
Team discussion in the interval pointed towards success gained in the first half taking the early phases through the forwards, and with the intent being to exploit this area, it was a great luxury for the thirds to be able to replace the hard working backrow of Ingham, Kerr and Porter with fresh legs in the shape of the Raby brothers and Andy Parkin.
Heath gained immediate reward with the tactic of driving through the forwards when Bottomley displayed his smarts by capitalizing on good field position to drop a goal putting Heath back into the lead, 8 -5.
The next 20 minutes saw some of the best 15 man rugby displayed by a Heath third in a long while. Strong driving play and quick turnovers forced by the Heath forwards lead directly to trys for Karl Raby, Paul Bottomley and Martin Barnes. Barnes effort was a particularly well taken effort as he first charged down an attempted kick and then kept his composure to re-gather and score.
Heath’s final try was a great solo effort from Gary Hare who was put in space by Gareth Owen just inside the Dinnington half, and the debutant didn’t need a second invitation to pin his ears back and beat three defenders to the corner, capping a great first appearance.
Paul Bottomley kicked two conversions, and Dinnington replied with two late trys to leave the final score at 32 – 19. A wonderful team performance from Heath was great reward for the hard work put in at training over the last 2 months. The thirds are now 4 wins from 7 and looking to continue building on this. Well done to all!
MOM, Hanks, Tolan and Hare.
