|
|
|
 |
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]
Related Links:
Tigers Preview
|
Author: Stan the Camel
Date: 09-11-08 04:52
Sounds a fantastic game - an excellent report and very much appreciated. Thanks, El Pedro.
Did we actually have THREE players in the sin bin at one point?
|
|
Reply To This Message
|
|
Author: oldge
Date: 09-11-08 09:54
yes but only for about 30 seconds. anth came back on just after dicko and spanish got yellow within seconds of each other!
great performance lads and hopefully this will be the start of our season!
|
|
Reply To This Message
|
|
Author: MikeyBoy
Date: 09-11-08 15:15
this was an excellent win. I was especially impressed with the defence - it looked as though their pack is used to making a lot of ground from the big lads in the 2nd row but after a couple of phases yesterday their backs looked like they didn't know what to do - and that was down to solid tackling from our lads.
I thought Spanish had a good game on his debut and I thought Mossy played really well - he was putting in some big hits and ripping the ball out, great stuff.
how sheffield tigers ended up with no yellow cards to our three is baffling!
|
|
Reply To This Message
|
|
Author: mossy`s dad
Date: 09-11-08 16:27
I think thats the best i`ve seen the 1 st team play since the middle of last season , defence was awesome , and the offence was much more threatening than Sheffield who perhaps came up here a little complacent !!! perhaps not ....... on the day they where well beaten by a better side , it bodes well for future games , its a shame the support was`nt better , i think the lads deserve a better turn out , those that wer`nt there missed a cracker .
|
|
Reply To This Message
|
|
Author: Dave Picken
Date: 10-11-08 12:13
Fair enough apart from no mention of the late tackle on Gareth Kerr which on another day could have been pen try/yellow card
|
|
Reply To This Message
|
|
Author: MikeyBoy
Date: 10-11-08 12:28
their report seems reasonable. If I was one of their fans I'd would be very dissapointed that they couldn't take advantage of all the sin bins we had.
From where I was, I couldn't see what spanish was yellow carded for so don't know whether it should have been a penalty try but the fact that the barrage of punches from their number 8 in response to that incident was missed by the ref was ridiculous.
|
|
Reply To This Message
|
|
|
|
| |
NEXT FIXTURE
Gateshead
VENUE
Home ko 3.00
DATE
Sat August 8th
|
|
More West Hartlepool - Official headlines
Support Your Club
Advertising on your club's official
website
Click Here |
|
|
Contact SportNetwork.net | Join Us: Official | Join Us: Unofficial | Advertise on SportNetwork.net | Complain | Our Links
