Heath overcome strong Huddersfield pack to for bonus point

Team:

1. Dance   2. Puttick   3. Morley   4. James

5. Hunter   6. Owen 7.Dawes 8. Barnes

9. Cole 10. Reynolds 11.Wilkinson 12 Malik 13 Bruce 14 Hinchcliffe 15 Storey

Replacements: Wilby, Kerr

Heath welcomed Huddersfield to West Vale, for the first game after the Christmas break. With Puttick, Barnes and Storey returning, Heath were confident of preventing Huddersfield from doing the double over us, being the only team to beat us in the first part of the season.

Huddersfield kicked off, with missing players in their pack the match was to be played throughout with uncontested scrums, something that did remove a little of the combative atmosphere from this historically tight forward battle.

Huddersfield made the most of the early periods of play, their forwards were faster to the breakdown and this provided their very adept centre, time and space to play his usual expansive game, aided by exceptional kicking. Heath found it difficult to get out of their own half and were in fact lucky to keep a clean score in the first 15 minutes. However when the break in pressure did come, they were the first to take advantage of their chances. Reynolds cleared with a good kick and the ball made its way to Jack Bruce, he made space for the supporting Hunter to crash over near the corner flag. Cole missed the first of a series of difficult conversions 5-0

Huddersfield resumed their assault within the Heath 22, we lost Barnes to injury from a thunderous tackle, and he was replaced by Wilby. 

Great tackling first from Wilkinson and then Dawes forced a penalty for not releasing, allowing Cole to kick to the 5m line for an attacking lineout. Heath secured the ball and started a strong drive forward, but our opponents held strong and the ball went dead. Heath were awarded the scrum and again spread the ball wide, but play was called back for an ankle injury to James. He also had to leave the field to be replaced by Kerr, having both subs on in first half could have been a worry but the team held strong.

From the scrum, Huddersfield were again penalised for not releasing the tackled player, allowing Cole to take a quick tap penalty to go over again wide. The conversion was missed. 10-0

Complacency then fell in, as from the restart Huddersfield pressed again, despite having opposing Captain Baxter yellow carded, the defence was conspicuous in its absence, when Huddersfield ran in almost unopposed, for a score under the posts allowing a simple conversion 10-7.

We had very quickly gone from a relaxed position to being in a battle to prevent Huddersfield getting back into the game. Huddersfield pressed again, with Storey managing to release Hinchcliffe on an unfruitful chase, the ball was returned again. Heaths forwards held firm with Hunter, Dance and Morley battling hard, but Heaths handling was poor and let Huddersfield back into the game. Again a penalty allowed Cole to find touch for another attacking lineout. The ball initially was spread to the backs before returning across the field to find Owen in space to cross the line, with the conversion missed the score moved to 15-7.

From the restart normal service was resumed when Owen passed to Cole who released Malik, he broke the gain line with a crash through the defence and offloading to Bruce, who went on a mazy run to score just to right of the posts. This time the conversion was taken and the score moved onto 22-7, the bonus point gained the next target was to secure the win.

Half Time

With the half time whistle sounding, Coach Baxter and Captain Cole laid down a few home truths to the team. The handling needed to improve and with no chance of turnover in the scrums discipline had to be maintained. Dawes left the field for Barnes to return.

Heath kicked off and the ball was returned to Storey who managed to clear to the 10m line. Huddersfield were unable to secure the ball with the first of a number of not straight throws.  However Heath were unable to progress the ball much further forward from the scrum with the ball going astray through a knock on.

The next passage of play was scrappy from both teams, with handling errors preventing any flowing rugby. Puttick had a run outwide but Bruce was unlucky not to gather the offload, and Wilkinson was also stopped in his tracks several times before gaining much ground. Frustration seemed to get to Heath most and continued infringements caused the ref to yellow card Barnes for his turn in the Sin Bin.

Heath had to keep things tight during this period, any score could reignite Huddersfield’s charge. Dawes came back on for Owen and the game entered into a further period of little advantage to either team. The 10 minute period of sin bin was weathered and with Barnes returning and the clock running down, we managed to score again. In a similar move to the one in the first half, Cole managed to secure space releasing Malik again, running forward he drew the defence and Bruce was there again to sprint through and place the ball just to the right of the post. With the last kick of the game Cole slotted over to finish 29-7

A slightly rusty performance but a win against a strong Huddersfield team, next week we need to improve away against Ilkely are only 5 points behind us in the table

Full Time Heath 29– Huddersfield 7