A successful visit to South Yorkshire.

Selection:

O Cook, W I-Barker,  G Heron (100),  F Marsden, D North, J Beck, D Brown, S Sharp.

M Rowntree,  S Fletcher,  P Cadogan, B Hall,  E Knight,  H Granger,  J Bruce.

C K-Payne,  W Baxter,  B Ward,  L Marchall, O Watkinson,  R Dance.

Scorers

George Heron, try x 1.  Phil Cadogan, try x 1.  Kieron Baldry, try x 1.  Will Baxter, try x 1.  Sam Fletcher, try x 2; conv x 1.  Oli Cook, conv x 1.

Match Report

Heath Hawks ventured south to take on the league’s form team, Wath, who had put 100 points on Keighley the week previous and were 2nd in the table.

A busy day at Wath meant the Hawks were ‘over the creek’ on the ‘park’ pitch. This didn’t detract from the expected physical battle.

Heath started off well.  Brown, Heron and Cook battled well against an experienced Wath front five. This platform allowed Max Rowntree to feed Captain Sam Fletcher who released the influential centre partnership of Hall and Knight. However, Wath are not second in this league by default and their own centre partnership, along with canny halfbacks, gave Heath plenty to think about.

Heath were first on the scoreboard with a Phil Cadogan try, which was a result of some impressive handling and support play throughout the team, Cook converted this one.

The game then came to a sudden halt as the Wath centre looked to have dislocated an ankle from an innocuous Max Rowntree tackle in midfield. Play stopped for a good 30 minutes whilst impressive medical staff from Wath arranged his safe passage onto Hospital.

The delay didn’t help either team as the game became scrappy. Ferg Marsden, Brook Ward and Dylan North provided decent line out ball and Sam Sharp tackled everything that came down his channel.

Wath were the next to score, as pressure built and allowed them to crash over from close range with a converted try making the score 7-7.

Halftime approached, Dance had entered the field of play for Heron and made his usual block busting presence felt at both scrum time and in the ball carry, the back line supported both Dance and Beck who were creating havoc.  This platform led to late tries in the half for new boy Keiron Baldry and old boy Fletch, both unconverted, giving a halftime score of 7-17.

The second half was evenly fought as Wath distributed ball well and battled hard at breakdown. However, it appeared that the superior fitness and skills of the visitors Heath meant that they began to get on top of the Wath team. Will Baxter had come on at halftime for Brook Ward and his introduction along with the effervescent Carrick Keighley-Payne, injected much needed energy.  Indeed, it was Baxter who scored the next try, again uncoverted to give Heath a comfortable 7-22 lead.

With Granger at fullback dealing comfortably with the Wath kicking game and Lewis Marshall, having now replaced Phil Cadogan, also running the ball strongly, Heath manfully attempted to close the game out.  However, Wath were not going to lie down as they continued to rotate a large squad and probe the visitors defence.  Indeed, they got the next converted try to bring the game to a closer, eight point difference.

Heath have worked too hard this season to give up the league advantage and indeed stepped up in the last quarter.  Heron replaced Cook and had several impressive involvements at both set piece and in the loose, culminating in a long range try - well, long range for George!  Unfortunately again there was no conversion but the lack of additional two points per try was not going to hold Heath back.

One of the standout players for the day, Captain Fletcher, belied his robust appearance with more fleet footed attack of the Wath tiring defensive line as he scooted through a gap to round the full back and close enough to the posts to convert his own try leaving the full-time score, Heath 34 Wath 14.

Dylan Brown made an impressive debut, pushed into hooking, his ball carry was exceptional. Ferg Marsden showed why he has been with the 1st team with some quality senior leadership, Sam Sharp with Josh Beck both super consistent. In the backs Max and Fletch trouble every defence they play, Ben Hall and Knighty compliment each other well and when they fired it was impressive.

So the season draws to a close with the final game against Huddersfield on the 11th of April.

A complicated league points scoring system has kept others in the game, however, a win for Heath will leave them as Champions with the prospect of a top 4 play off against Harrogate, Wath and Huddersfield to follow.

UTH

Championship West Results, here.

Championship West Table, here.