Tigers arrived sitting in third place, tied on points with both Hull and Westoe above them and as the only side having beaten lead points scorers Hull this season. 6’ 9” former USA international Luke Gross lined up in a formidable looking visitors pack and with the last Saturday’s drubbing still fresh in the mind West were in no doubt as to the size of the task ahead of them.

Both teams should be credited for a gripping encounter, never short of action and incident, and excellent entertainment for the crowd gathered at Brinkburn. West have been guilty of not playing the sensible rugby at times this season but this could certainly not be said of this afternoons performance. Tactics were spot on, the kicking game worked well, defence was strong and discipline mostly good, in extremely trying circumstances.

West got off to a flying start playing into the wind and could have had a try inside two minutes. Gareth Kerr hacked on a loose pass in the Tigers backline and looked to be clear. He was first to the ball at the 22 and hacked on again only to be tackled despite not having the ball. Paul Moss made no mistake with the resulting penalty but had the incident not happened so early in the game a yellow card would have surely been inevitable.

Still, West weren’t about to hang around disputing the decision and were soon adding the first try of the game. A break down the left flank by Iain Dixon was well supported by debutant flanker Domonic Morrison and his neat pass set Darren Thomas away down the touchline. He cut nicely inside the last defender and rode the tackle to touchdown for an 8-0 lead.

Tom Outram notched a penalty in reply for the visitors with ten minutes gone and seven minutes later lively scrum-half Alex Drage drew Tigers level when some good counter-rucking resulted in turnover ball and his quick feet saw him dart through untouched to the line. Outram’s conversion gave his side the lead, a blow to West as they had dominated the opening quarter.

West only had to wait 6 minutes to regain the lead though. Iain Dixon came into the backline from full back on a nice line and showed great strength to hold off three defenders, just reaching the line to slam the ball down and leave Moss the easiest of conversions. Just to the right of the posts.

With both sides competing feverishly at the tackle and ruck area there was plenty of confrontation and Anth Carr saw yellow for some over-zealous rucking 10 minutes before the break. Tigers got the better of a series of scrums and a break for the line was just halted by a covering tackle from Iain Dixon. The full-back joined his skipper in the sin-bin though, referee Will Halford judging him to have handled the ball on the floor. Down to thirteen things got immediately worse for West when with a 5-metre scrum back pedalling drastically Morrison killed the ball and was also dismissed to the sin-bin.

Tigers had one more scrum before the half-time whistle but couldn’t get the ball over the line and West had hung on with a valiant defensive effort.

Moss slotted a penalty two minutes into the second half to nudge West into an 8 point lead but Outram cancelled it out eight minutes later having missed a penalty moments before.

West had ridden out the time with two men short having only conceded three points and also added three of their own. It was a tremendous effort and spurred them on to finish the second half conceding no more points.

On the hour mark Carr came within centimetres of a try prop’s dream about when he intercepted a pass and set off on a 60 metre dash for the line. He looked certain to get there but a tremendous chase and tackle forced him into touch as he lunged for the line. However, it wasn’t long before a score did come. Morrison turned the ball over and it was moved quickly wide to Rob Thorn on half way and in a return to the familiar sight of last season the winger made no mistake, racing clear to score the try, Moss nailing the wide conversion.

Still within two converted tries the game wasn’t over but West weren’t about to give this one away. Even with Tigers on the line the defence refused to be breached and when Moss slotted a third penalty eight minutes from time it sealed the game. Tigers continued to press in the closing stages but West held on for a thoroughly deserved win.

Winning home games was always going to be the key to West’s season and this result will certainly send out the message to the rest of North One that Brinkburn is not going to be an easy place to come and win.


West: I Dixon, Thorn, Kerr, Hodgson, Thomas (Howe), Tighe, Carr, Sawyer (A Dixon), Stewart (Coates), I Robinson, T Dixon, D Boatman, Morrison, Vinnicombe.

Tries: Thomas, I Dixon, Thorn.
Cons: Moss 2
Pens: Moss 3

Sinbin: Carr, I Dixon, Morrison

Sheffield Tigers: Outram, Morley, Bray, Tillyer, Spon-Smith, J Pearson, Drage, Warner, Toews, Bunting, Joel, Gross, Barnes, Barrett, N Perason.

Try: Drage
Con: Outram
Pens: Outram 2

Referee: Will Halford [Northern Group]