Great Victory against team placed much higher

Dinnigton 3rds v Heath 2nds

Team:

1. Kerr   2. Whitworth   3. Morley   4. James

5. Dance    6. Dawes 7. Wilby 8. Owen

9. Cole 10. Reynolds 11. Ramsden 12 Malik 13 Hinchcliffe 14 Wilkinson 15 Cockroft

Replacements: Hammond

With Huddersfield YMCA unable to fulfil their planned league fixture, we were able to arrange a fixture with higher placed Dinnington. The fixture once again took place in heavy conditions underfoot and heavy rain and as such this report is once again short and to the point.

Heath arrived with only 16 players and were met with an opposing side of not on 3rd team players but 2nds also, numbering in the mid twenties , this was going to be a tough test of Heaths squad.

Heath kicked off and were immediately under heavy pressure from the large and well drilled pack, Heath weathered the early pressure and in fact had a fleeting attack, from a great kick by Ramsden. Dinnington were starting to take heart from their early forays but the Heath forwards were putting in some heavy hits.  Managing to overturn the ball, Heath surged forward controlling the ball well in the pack, managing to release Malik who offloaded to Cockroft for him to sprint through to the left of the posts . Cole missed the difficult conversion. 0 - 5

Dinnington were not expecting this but came back strongly from the restart. Unfourtunately, Malik received a nasty chest injury when delivering a defensive tackle , and despite lengthy treatment was replaced by Hammond on 15 minutes. Whitworth was throwing well in the lineout, providing oppourtunities to drive away from pressure, with James also marshalling several driving mauls.

Dinnington regrouped after the injury break, and kept much of the remaining halves play in Heath's end. However Heath held strong with a will to keep another clean sheet. Dinningtion tried to break the deadlock by recycling fresh legs onto the field but to no avail. Dance, Morley, Kerr and Hammond were immense in defence, in a game where the conditions and Dinnington's perceived strength kept the ball in a battle of the forwards. Dawes, returning from injury, also gave his shoulder a good test assisting in the loose.  Wilby and Owen provided mobilbity and drives to relieve pressure where they could and this ensured no further score before Half Time.

Cole's half time talk was easy, keep up the work rate and defence and attack where we could.

Dinnington kicked off and the match continued in much the same vein as the latter part of the first half. Reynolds was unlucky to knock on when put through from a kick, and was there again with Wilkinson and Ramsden to repel a backs' attack. Again the forwards came to the fore , from a lineout, several phases were executed before Dance made a drive for the line, he seemed to have been held up, only for Wilkinson to snatch the ball and twist over for another well worked try. 0 - 10 The difficult conversion was missed by Cole.

Dinnington were running out of time and ideas, they again re shuffled their team and brought on most of their starting 15. They again drove to the Heath line, but this time we were unable to hold them, and they scored near to the posts, with them taking the extra two, it was going to be a nervous last 10 minutes for Heath but we held firm for a great victory