Broadstreet RFC

Broadstreet RFC 21 Sheffield Tigers RFC 19,

September 11^th

For the first home match of the season, Broadstreet welcomed the level transferred Sheffield Tigers to the Ivor Preece Fields, who had suffered a loss at the hands of South Leicester in their opening match. ‘Street named two changes to the line-up that had beaten their Luton, Cameron Pimlow slotting in at fly-half whilst Nick Thatcher moved up tp 9 to replace the injured Mark Schropfer whilst Andy Tee replaced Brett Chatwin in the back 3.

‘Street took no time in using their home-field advantage when Jordan Simpson quick tapped a penalty and darted through the slow retreating Sheffield forwards, gaining 30 metres before a Sheffield player could even lay hands on him. Quick recycling from the ‘Street pack allowed Cameron Pimlow to receive the ball at flyhalf and ping a perfect 20 metre pass out to Tom Stokes on the right wing, who hit the ball at pace on the outside shoulder of the retreating defence and gassed his opposite number to score in the corner. His conversion of his own try made it 7-0 after 2 minutes.

Spectators must have believed that they were in for a try bonanza when 1 minute later Sheffield carved open the ‘Street defence in similar fashion, only for loose passing from a rogue forward in the backline butchering an opportunity to cross over an open try-line.

Sheffield exhibited their forward dominance through a couple of catch and drives from lineouts which forced street to commit a couple of cynical penalties, this allowed a few shots at goal in front of the posts. However, young fly-half Joe Wright was unable to punish with these penalties, even missing once in front of the posts.

Broadstreet pressured for 10 miutes in the middle of the first half but this brought out only frustration for them as Tigers showed some excellent defence with last-ditch covering tackles stopping winger Matty Fielder’s certain try.

However it was ‘Street’s complete inability to deal with the Sheffield Tigers catch and maul tactics which threatened the Broadstreet line for the last ten minutes of the half. Then finally on 36 minutes a break down the blind off one of a driven lineout meant that the attackers overloaded the last man and Tigers’ tighthead Anthony Ross crashed over in the corner. Despite missing earlier easier kicks Joe Wright got the conversiom from the touchline. 7-7

Half time 7-7

7 minutes into the 2^nd half Tigers’ try scorer Ross was sent to the bin for a number of incedents deep in Sheffield territory. Tom Stokes easily slotted the penalty in front of posts to make it 10-7.

Simon Morris managed to charge down a kick in the midfield, which ricocheted into the arms of the Sheffield Tigers loosehead’s arms. Nick Thatcher followed up well pressurising the loosehead which seemed to cause him to panic and chuck it backwards to no-one. Thatch pounced on the now loose ball, kicking it through and gathering the ball in the Sheffield 22, the ball was again quickly recycled and spun out wide where Broadstreet’s Loosehead Ben Dawes was eagerly waiting. Despite an open try-line he obviously believed the 15 metres was to far for his own effort and so the ball was passed to Matty Fielder who made light work of the distance to score ‘Streets second. Stokes missed conversion made it 15-7.

On 62 mins Tom Stokes slotted another penalty before being subbed off. Cameron Pimlow stepped up for the next two kickable penalties but failed to punish Sheffield further. However, when Broadstreet opted for the posts from 47 metres out it seemed for many in the crowd to be a time wasting opportunity, the succesful kick from Pimlow was very impressive and stretched the lead to 21-7 with only 8 minutes to go.

However, Sheffield continued to exploit their strengths and with 5 mins left they did what they had been threatening to do all game when blindside Barnes scored a push over try from a lineout. Just before the final whistle Tigers fullback Feeney executed the play of the match when, cornered in his own 22, he stepped round the first tackler, dodged through the landmines of hobbling props and gassed the winger to score under the posts. 21-19

MotM –

Cam Pimlow for excellent defence and distribution

Full time 21-19