A worthy draw against doughty opponents

Heath kicked off at Laund Road, Huddersfield, in fine, if overcast, conditions. There was an unfamiliar look to the back formation even though all the players had played in the first team before. Mick Gleeson was at fullback; Richard Armstrong and Rob Thackray were on the wings; Karl Craven was a late addition to the centre alongside Ben Mitchell and Tom Collinge played scrum half to Charlie Lomas at fly-half. In the forwards, Jamie Watson was injured, causing Olly Cook to move up to prop, Ian Downsborough to 2nd row and Jeff Jones to come in at No 8. All the exchanges in the first 25 minutes took place in the ‘YM’ half of the field. There was little fluency to the game which was interrupted by injuries to YM’s Lloyd Bentley and Senn Merrick and to Heath’s Ben Mitchell, who was replaced by Si Brown. Heath pressured YM into conceding penalties which were usually kicked out of hand for position; but on 21 minutes Lomas took a pot at goal which missed narrowly. Then YM got going and were within reach of the Heath line, but the forwards stood firm until Lomas cleared. Both sides were then penalised – Heath for offside and YM for not releasing in the tackle. Neither yielded points but Gleeson set up prop, Chris Moore, for a sparkling run down the wing to move Heath forward. Unfortunately, Heath were soon penalised and YM struck for touch on the Heath 22m line. Frustration was creeping in and YM’s Sam Hodge found himself in the sin-bin. In his absence, Heath found touch 10m from the YM line; Lomas and Brown worked well but were held up after being driven over. Jeff Jones broke from a 5-metre scrum for Heath, but his pass to Montgomery went to ground. YM’s clearance kick was safely caught by Armstrong. Then, at a scrum 15m out, YM were again penalised and LOMAS opened the scoring to put Heath ahead at 0 – 3 on half-time. This was a hard-fought local derby with lots of injuries, penalties, whistle and stoppages. The second half promised more. From the re-start YM took play into the Heath 22m area and after 42 minutes, left wing Tom BULLOCK scored a fine try after the ball was passed through several hands quickly. John Smith missed the conversion but YM were in the lead, 5 – 3. This spurred the hosts into further attacks but when they strayed offside, Heath put together about 15 consecutive passes to reach their 22m – and the sun came out! They then kicked into the corner and, at the lineout, Downsborough caught for Montgomery to drive. YM’s defence kept Heath out. Next, Gleeson gained ground kicking a penalty for touch. There followed a purple patch of inter-passing, involving Heath’s middle backs and forwards, but they didn’t crack the defence. On 53 minutes, YM’s fly-half Smith worked an immaculate reverse pass for Sam Hodge to scythe through. He was brought down but gained position from which a quick tap penalty was taken and prop Steve DYKE went over for an unconverted try: 10 - 3. YM were looking more confident now, but Heath quickly came back. Mark PUTTICK romped over from a Heath lineout near the opposition tryline. LOMAS converted to level the scores at 10 – 10 on 60 minutes. The last quarter was frenetic, with both sides creating half-chances. For Heath, Si Brown just failed to hold on to an interception; for YM, right wing Chris Beavers came into the line and created an overlap, but the final pass went astray. The two packs pounded one another and on 70 minutes Jones (Heath) and Gent (YM) were sent to finish their games in the ‘cooler’. For Heath, Downsborough, Montgomery, Moore and Puttick interpassed until the ball went to ground. YM won the scrum and threatened. Heath’s backs created an overlap, but Chris Beavers intercepted for YM and looked to have the distant line at his mercy, then lost the ball. Heath put in a massive tackle count during this last quarter. They kept re-asserting themselves and when the final whistle blew, with play on the half way line, they had achieved a worthy 10 – 10 draw against doughty opponents. As a result, Heath remained in 8th place in the league.