Performance to be proud of

Heath 7 - 19 Otley

Heath hosted Otley at HQ with Oscar Szadbey on debut and a returning Aman Mekala from injury.  Otley won the toss and chose to receive playing towards the river on the first team pitch.

The first 15 mins of the match was well balanced with both teams defending and rucking well.  Heath’s fly half Sonny Gordon left the field of play for a HIA and replaced by Aman Mekala.  Otley started to build momentum and after two direct runs into the Heath 20m Otley drove over for the first try of the game after 17 mins of play.  Try converted.

Heath 0 - 7 Otley.

This gave Otley the confidence and repeated some really good lines of running from depth.  This led to a well taken try out wide after 22 mins which went unconverted.

Heath 0 - 12 Otley.

Halftime came and gave Heath the opportunity to reset and focus on their goals in the second half.  Otley kicked off and didn’t take long to put pressure on the Heath line.  To Heaths credit some great defence kept Otley out for the first five minutes but the Heath line was broken for the third time.

Heath 0 - 19 Otley.

With twenty minutes remaining there was a real danger that Heath could’ve been on the receiving end of a big loss.  However the Heathens play for one another and will always dig deep.  The forwards were smashing the rucks and started to get over the gainline.  A breakthrough came when Ethan Murphy bust through to score in the 38th min.  Try converted.

Heath 7 - 19 Otley.

The game continued to be an arm wrestle with both teams making breaks and coming in with excellent cover tackles.

The final whistle went.

Full Time: Heath  7 - 19 Otley.

Man of the match (selected by Otley) for his fantastic breaks and jackal technique: Ethan Murphy.

This was a performance that Woods & I are proud of as a coaching team.  On past experience Otley are in the top two or three in Yorkshire and sets a benchmark for us to target.

We wish Otley all the best in R1 of the Yorkshire Cup next week v Ilkley.  Heath will be on the road for a mini tour to Bridlington.

#uth