Sheffield Eagles Rugby League Reserve Team Fixtures & Results - First Division 2008

Sheffield Eagles (6) 24 Featherstone (12)26

Saturday 29th March 2008: Hillsborough Arena

Ref T Crashley  TJ D McNeice  TJ M Jones

Match Gallery can be seen HERE

     On what could only loosely be described as damp conditions, with patches of the field becoming deeper as the match went on, the video camera man suggesting he had 80 minutes of a great film of rain and not a lot of rugby the two teams played an entertaining game of rugby. The Eagles started off slowly as they got to know the rest of the team and with Greg Hurst showing the forwards how to tackle, Damien Thomas trying to distribute the ball in all directions and Grant Farrow not only being solid in defence, making great yardage in attack.

     Eagles were under constant pressure from the kickoff, although it was Rovers who were making the errors, giving away unnecessary penalties and possession, and they threw away an easy chance to open the scoring on 11 minutes when they knocked on having crossed the try line.

     The home side withstood the pressure and eventually the ideal break came when Grant Farrow picked up the ball on the halfway line and outran all others to score under the posts giving Michael Hill and easy convertible kick, which he did.

     The rest of the half really did belong to Rovers who had so obviously played together before. The put in some great halfback moves and the relentless tackling which had to be done by The Eagles to keep them from crossing the whitewash. Hurst, Rowe, Thomas and Morrow being the leaders in that field.

     Just as the end of the first quarter approached Featherstone's Hesketh managed to bring the visitors back within 2 points of the Eagles with a try which Wynne could not convert. Further pressure  and 5 minutes later Rovers were awarded a penalty for "lifting" and Wynne took the shot at goal and brought the scores level.

    The deadlock lasted for another 15 minutes, when just as the half time whistle approached, the usual lack of concentration by the Eagles crept in and Rovers made a break down the left hand wing, exposing a gap for Kellett to make good metres and then he drew the Eagles defence across and passed to Dobek to go in for the first of his brace. This time Wynne converted and brought the half time score to Eagles 6 Rovers 12.

     The second half started in the same vein as the first ended with Rovers opening their account one minute 26 secs into the half with an easy try for Dobek, which Wynne could not convert. Again Rovers had taken control of the middle of the park and thanks to some excellent tackling by Kesik, Booth, Thomas and Morrow the visitors were kept away from the Eagles try line. Cawthray managed to break the line of defence, again Wynne missed and then 2 minutes later, McDonald intercepted an unusually wild Rovers pass and headed for the try line. If he had not looked around he would have made it but inexperience came to the fore and he was tackled into the left hand touch only inches from the Rovers line. Rovers responded well and Hutton went over for the last of Rovers' tries on 54 minutes, again the conversion was missed by Wynne.

     With the reintroduction of Craig Jones the Eagles picked themselves up and James Morrow found himself on the score sheet, converted by McDonald and were they on their way back? The score 12 - 24. 2 minutes later an excellent passage of play saw newcomer James Parameter who had been quietly working away get his debut try on 61 minutes, again converted by McDonald. Eagles discipline slipped a little at this time and conceding 3 penalties in a couple of minutes didn't help their cause, and Featherstone jumped on the opportunity to add to their score when Eagles were found to be off-side at the play of the ball and Wynne managed to slot the ball home.

     Sheffield were not finished yet and went on a series of hurtful runs which eventually gave Alex Rowe the opportunity to force his way over for yet another McDonald converted try. 2 points in it and with 8 minutes left, were the Eagles going to pull off a tremendous turn around?

     5 penalties were awarded in the last few minutes and the Eagles managed to get to within inches of the Rovers line only to be thwarted at the last minute. The final chance came unexpectedly in the last minute or so. The Rovers bench were insisting their lads "stick it up your jersey" and the Eagles on their final (as it turned out to be) attack threw away a great opportunity to score, by crossing !!

     A good close contest in atrocious conditions. Credit to all the players and Craig Jones who had to have stitches near his eye and had to miss the final 10 minutes.

Eagles: Grant Farrow; Dan Bedford; James Paramenter; Richard Humphries; Simon Corby; Dane McDonald; Damien Thomas; Craig Jones; Michael Hill; Alex Rowe; James Morrow; David Reed; Greg Hurst; Kyle Kesik; Aaron Phelps; Simon Perry; Liam Booth.

Scorers: Tries: Farrow(15); Morrow (58); Parmenter (61); Rowe (72). Goals: Hill 1/1; McDonald 3/3

Featherstone: S Wilson; S Hutton; S Sinclair; D Wynne; D Kellett; M Handworth; A Dobek; D Sheperd; M Johnson; G Ellery; D Richardson; C Cawthray; S Hesketh; A Curtis; J Goff; C Burke; Y Gabriel

Scorers: Tries: Hesketh (19); Dobek (39,41); Cawthray (49); Hutton (54) Goals: Wynne 3/7

Match Stats:

Scoring sequence:   6-0;6-4;6-6;6-12;6-16;6-20;6-24;12-24;18-24;18-26;24-26

Penalties: Eagles (6) 11 Rovers (3) 9

Penalties awarded to Eagles: (Time): 4;7;18;30;31;38;44;58;71;75;78.

Penalties awarded to Rovers: (Time): 1;24;29;46;63;69;76;79.

Only 3 awarded for high tackles; 2 for "lifting"; 4 for "ripping";

Scrums: Eagles (9) 12 Rovers (8) 12

20 of the 24 scrums were for knock-ons

Tackles: First Man:  Eagles 134 Rovers 117

Total tackles by Eagles: 272.

Top tackles Morrow & Hurst - 32 ; Thomas 27.

Metres Gained: Eagles 655: Top Man: Grant Farrow: 165

Carries 110: Top Man: Farrow & Thomas 14

Eagles Completion: 1st Half = 43.75% 2nd Half = 46.67%

Drop-Outs: Eagles 2 ( 5, 65) Rovers 1 (34)

Man of the Match: A difficult choice... Greg Hurst as a forward and Damien Thomas as a back.

Some excellent debuts today in atrocious conditions.

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Sheffield Eagles (16) 24   Keighley Cougars (18) 44  
Ref  B Robinson  TJ  J Seymour  TJ  J Beddis

Saturday 5th April 2008 Hillsborough Arena

Match Gallery can be seen HERE

It may seem a little worn, but this was certainly a game of two halves where the Eagles started off very well and kept within striking distance of the visitors up to the 41^st minute when the home side regained the lead, but from there on the visitors started to apply the pressure and, apart from Dane McDonald's 3^rd try on the 54^th minute, Keighley had complete control of the second half.

The Eagles opened their account on the 2^nd minute with a try from fullback Mark Renshaw-Smith after Keighley had been penalized for being off-side. The ball was passed through initially 6 sets of hands, before James Morrow was brought down. Yosef Sozi took the ball up before it went to the hands of Neil Ackroyd and Dane McDonald  to feed  Renshaw-Smith to make the last few metres to open the scoring for the Eagles.

This seemed to wake Keighley up and they exerted early pressure on the Eagles defence gaining two penalties for off-side before forcing errors in the defence with incomplete and missed tackles and a further penalty for a high shot. The visitors capitalized on this and Ben Sagaz went in for the first of the Keighley tries which was not converted. Luke Sandland, who was to be the thorn in the Eagles side was pushing the Keighley forwards around the pitch and the home side were having to put in a great number of defensive tackles to try to keep the try line from being breached.

Eagles were forced to drop out on 13 minutes but there was little respite for the Eagles and it was soon the turn off Marco Ferrazzano to cross the white wash, on 14 minutes, followed by Sandland himself on 18 minutes and he followed his own kick through and recovered the ball, both converted by Sandland, to give Keighley a deserved 12 point lead.

The Eagles were putting in some good tackles with Greg Hurst, Morrow and Sozi leading the way. The game was hardly a quarter of the way through when the weather changed dramatically and it started hailing heavily, but Keighley continued to exert pressure on the Eagles.

They were forced to drop out again on the 22^nd minute after a Keighley kick through.

Stephen Price made some good yards on the wing and got the ball  to Simon Perry who was stopped just a yard short of the try line. Just as the line was begging to be crossed Craig Jones knocked on but was on hand to make amends a minute later and close the gap on the visitors and McDonald duly tagged on the extras.

Eagles were judged to be off-side again as the half was drawing to a close and Sandland had an easy kick to make the score 10 - 18.

For once the Eagles were given a penalty for Keighley upending one of the Eagles and from the resultant penalty the home sidewere able to get the ball into the hands of McDonald who crossed for his first try, which he converted, after the ball hit the upright and the halftime difference was only 2 points.

The second half continued from where the first half had ended and McDonald crossed the Keighley line to give the lead back to the Eagles, which they had not held since the 6^th minute. Unfortunately this situation was not to last and in the ensuing 10 minutes Keighley crossed for another two converted tries, the first after Renshaw-Smith was sin-binned on 44 minutes for obstruction, and that was scored by Gazdnitz, the second by Haythorntwaite. After Stephen Price had set up a good platform for the Eagles and with some good pressure a wayward pass was intercepted by Haythorntwaite who ran the length of the pitch to score under the posts.

Eagles were making errors with their tackling techniques and allowing the Keighley attack to break through.

Eventually the Eagles put a good set of passes together which allowed McDonald to get on the end of a pass from Grant Farrow and he went in for his 3^rd try which Kyle Kesik failed to convert.

The last quarter of the game belonged to Keighley and with two penalties, two tries, one converted, Keighley made the score line look very convincing for themselves.

Sheffield : Mark Renshaw-Smith; Stephen Price, Richard Humphries, Grant Farrow, Daniel Bedford; Dane McDonald, Neil Ackroyd; Yusuf Sozi, Kyle Kesik, David Reed, James Morrow, James Parmenter, Greg Hurst. Subs: Damien Thomas, Aaron Phelps, Simon Perry, Craig Jones.
Scorers:
T: McDonald (39,41,54), Renshaw Smith (2), Jones (26) G: McDonald 2/4 Kesik 0/1

Man of Match: Backs: Richard Humphries: Forwards : James Morrow              

Keighley : Tim Bibby; Sam Gazdnitz, Mike Hastings, Alex Young, James Hutchinson; Luke Sandland, Liam Walsh; David Emmott, Luke Sutcliffe, Marco Ferrazzano, Dave Norcross, Ben Sagaz, James Travis. Subs: James Haythornetwaite, Tom Palmer, Paddy Murray, Danny Murgatroyd.
Scorers: T: Gazdnitz 2, Sandland, Sutcliffe, Ferrazzano, Sagaz, Haythornethwaite G: Sandland 8

Match Stats:

Tackles: 1^st man in: Eagles 137 Cougars 107

Total tackles: Eagles 271. Missed tackles 21. Top tackles: James Morrow 33, Greg Hurst 27

Completion Rate:  1^st half - 77% ; 2^nd half 62.5%

Carries: 103. McDonald 25, Kesik 21

Hitups 93: Hurst 13

Penalties: Eagles (4) 8 Cougars (6) 12

Sin Bin Mark Renshaw-Smith 44 minutes obstruction

Drop Outs: Eagles 13 and 22 minutes

Scrums: Eagles (4) 9 Cougars (4) 6

Metres Gained:  580  Top Man - Grant Farrow 77 Yusef Sozi 76 Stephen Price 71

Scoring sequence: 4-0,4-4,4-10,4-16,10-16,10-18,16-18,20-18,20-24,20-30,24-30,24-32,24-38,24-42,24-44

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Saturday 12th April - Match Postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.

New Date to be Advised

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Batley Bulldogs (8) 26 Sheffield Eagles (12) 28

Saturday 26th April 2008 - Mount Pleasant

Ref  T Mahar  TJ  B Leze  TJ  C Rodgers

Mount Pleasant is to the Eagles
 

On a warm sunny afternoon, Mount Pleasant lived up to its name. An Eagles team containing 7 with first team experience started with the advantage of the slope against them, but Batley were generous in giving away a penalty within the first minute and there was hope that this may encourage the young lads. Hepworth, Hurst and Jones were putting in some big drives and on the 11th minute Michael Hill opened the Eagles account by crossing the whitewash, with Dane McDonald tagging on the extras.
Both teams put in some excellent plays and with the Eagles making good 'yards' up the slope with speedy breaks and well timed off loads they capitalised on some lose Batley plays and Mike Roby showed his tremendous speed, which has been a feature of his first team appearances, and sprinted 50m up the hill, out-running the Batley defenders and scoring Eagles second try, which McDonald converted.
Batley continued to try to break the visitors defence and eventually Jerome Campbell achieved it, but with a poor conversion attempt by Scott Childs the score remained 4 points to 12. The action most teams dislike took place on the stroke of half-time when Childs crossed the whitewash for Batley's 2nd try, but thankfully for Eagles, Batley's 2nd kicker, James Craven, also failed to find the posts.
With the second half about to start the chance to play to the slope's advantage should have helped the Eagles, and with the substitutes Liam Booth, Aaron Phelps and Ryan James proving to be a nuisance to Batley, they seemed to up their game in response. Craven then went in for Batley's next try, putting the scores level and then Eagles secured possession after 4 penalties had been awarded against them in a very short time, and a well taken try by James Morrow seemed to put the visitors back in control. This was followed by a hard driven explosive try by Ryan Hepworth, again converted by McDonald.
Only two minutes later, and three drives later, the very hard working Grant Farrow broke down the left hand wing, and left the Batley defence standing to go in for the Eagles final try of the afternoon. Again McDonald scored.
Batley to their credit did not capitulate. Michael Stewart took on the Sheffield defence, after an alleged offence of ripping, and now using their 3rd kicker (Campbell) narrowed the gap by 6 points. It wasn't long before Stewart scored his second, but Campbell missed the conversion this time.
There was an urgency in the Batley camp and another few sets of skilled ball passing and off-loading, missed and incomplete Eagles tackles and Campbell put in a smart low kick on the left wing passed the Eagles defence and chased after it. The bounce was kind for him and he scored in the corner. With a touchline conversion needed to level the scores he, thankfully for the Eagles, missed and the game finished with eagles chalking up their first win of the season.


Batley Bulldogs:James Craven; Jerome Campbell; Nat Brown; Michael Stewart; Scott Childs; Joss Ratcliffe; Rich Colley; Anthony Thewliss; Ross Young; Michael Kite; Gary Green; Saquib Mutza; Stephen Brook; Damien Shipman; Jake Richardson; Ashley Vonsie; Nathan Hadfield.

Scorers: Jerome Cambell 2; Scott Childs; James Craven; Michael Stewart 2. Goals: Campbell 1/3; Craven 0/2; Childs 0/1

Sheffield Eagles: Mike Roby; Stephen Price; James Parmenter; Grant Farrow; Mark Renshaw-Smith; Dane McDonald; Michael Hill; Craig Jones; Kyle Kesik; Ryan Hepworth; James Morrow; Damien Thomas; Greg Hurst; Richard Humphries; Ryan James; Aaron Phelps; Liam Booth
Scorers: Michael Hill (11); Mike Roby (20); James Morrow (59); Ryan Hepworth (65); Grant Farrow (67);Goals: Dane McDonald 4/5

Scoring sequence: 0-6;0-12;4-12;8-12;12-12;12-16;12-22;12-28;18-28;22-28;26-28.

Penalties: Batley (4) 9 Sheffield (7) 9
Scrums: Batley (3) 8 Sheffield (3) 7
Completion Rates: Batley 1st half 9/14 . 2nd half 12/17. Sheffield 1st half : 17/23. 2nd half: 11/15.
Tackles: 225: Top Tacklers: Hurst 19; Farrow 21; Hepworth 23. Missed tackles/incomplete tackles : 16

Metres: 758. Mike Roby & Grant Farrow  108; Greg Hurst 90 ; Craig Jones 86

Hitups : 93. Ryan Hepwort 12 Grant Farrow 11

Carries: 129: Mike Roby & Kyle Kesik 14

No drop-outs

Man of the Match: Forwards- Damien Thomas. Backs- Michael Hill

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York City Knights (14) 34  Sheffield Eagles (24) 36

Thursday 8th May 2008 - Huntington Stadium

Ref  B Robinson  TJ  D Tindall  TJ  P Huck

Eagles have a good knight

McDonald shows his skill with hand and foot to clock up 20 points for the young Eagles

Sheffield went into this game with a real mix of youthfulness and experience. With 6 players making their debuts, (Greg Pygott;  Ed Battye;  Dan Hawksworth;  Simon Haigh, Dan Townson and Frank Wragg) the reserve team started off in the glorious sunshine and warmth of the Huntington Stadium on the back foot from the kick-off. With only having the control of the ball for 4 sets in the first 20 minutes found themselves 14 points down and looking as if it was going to be a long hard night. Thankfully the first choice kicker for York had a poor start and missed the first two shots at goal and then ex-Eagle Academy player (2002), Andy Gargan stepped up to the mark and slotted over the third conversion.

With this, the Eagles appeared to come out of their dream, or realized the bus had stopped and they could get off, and started to make inroads into the York defence with an excellent drive and typical Morrow try on 21 minutes with a well kicked goal by Dane McDonald.

This was the kick start the visitors needed and it was very shortly afterwards that the ball got some movement from Michael Hill, Grant Farrow and McDonald himself, after the forwards had made the impression needed in the York defence, for McDonald to go in for the first of his two tries, which he also converted.

Sheffield had started to dominate the play and the first interchange then brought on the newly signed from Hillsborough Hawks, Dan Hawksworth to replace captain Craig Jones. It was shortly afterwards that he came into action with a good run with the ball and did not disgrace himself in the next 20 minutes he was on. Some good hit ups and a couple of tackles was a good introduction to this level of rugby. Eagles were then awarded 4 successive penalties through stupid errors on behalf of the York team who were looking rattled. After the first three, the ball was taken up to the York line and Kyle Kesik scored his first try of his 2008 campaign.

Eagles maintained the pressure with some good attacking runs instigated by Michael Hill and Dane McDonald, big tackles by Greg Hurst, who has taken the loose forward shirt and made it a specialist position of his own, and solid tackling by James Morrow and Tommy Trayler. A second Hillsborough Hawk nurtured player took the field on 33 minutes for his debut. This was Greg Pygott who replaced Kyle Kesik and he settled into the team quickly and did well in supporting the attacks and did his fair share in defence.

Trayler having a run-out with the team added his name to the score sheet in the 35^th minute with a typical Trayler drive and try, in front of the posts, which McDonald had no trouble in converting.

Sheffield had changed the whole aspect of the game with the second 20 minutes with their4 converted unanswered tries. They made the York side look weary and had forced numerous errors from the home team and the small band of visiting supporters were encouraged by the display and looking forward to the next 40 minutes.

Eagles did not have the best of starts with Michael Hill going down in a tackle and having to come off with a shoulder injury. Shortly afterwards Hawksworth and Haigh were replaced with the big Jones and Hepworth units who had put in a great deal of work in the first half and they continued through the second delivering big hits in the tackle and Hepworth in particular made some very useful yards. York's Waldron then went against the run of the play and scored the first of his brace, converted by Gargan.

Another Hillsborough Hawk then had his chance to join the game. Ed Battye came on for James Morrow and made an immediate impact with some solid tackling in defence. McDonald then saw his chance a few minutes later to go in for his second try of the evening, thus restoring the advantage. Slack defending on the Eagles right wing allowed Waldron to be fed the ball and York broke across the field and he crashed over for his second, this time the conversion was missed.

The final Eagles score was on the 61^st minute when Stephen Price, who along with Frank Wragg had worked well in both attack and defence, had an opportunity to score a try of his own which McDonald again managed to convert to give the Eagles a twelve point advantage.

York responded with Hodgson scoring two more tries to take his tally for the night to 4 and Gargan could only convert the first. With him missing the second, this gave the Eagles a two point advantage with 12 minutes left on the clock. Both sides were frantically trying to gain field position, both making errors, with Eagles making most and finding it difficult to keep hold of the possession they worked hard for.

As the time passed the messages were to keep possession, the action was totally the opposite, but after 4 minutes of added time the referee blew time on the game and the Eagles had notched up their second successive, and close, win.

YORK CITY KNIGHTS: DAVID LEEKE ; JOHNNY WALDRON ; STEVE GRUNDY; SAM BLANEY; JOE STEARMAN; LEIGH RIENTOUL; ANDY GARGAN; JACK STEARMAN; TOM HODGSON; MARK APPLEGARTH ; JOE MAUD; OLIVER WILCOX-HARRRISON; DANNY WALTON; DALE FERRIS; TOM WILCOX-HARRISON; ADAM ENDERSBY; NICK SPECK; DAN HUNTER.

Scorers: Waldron 2; Hodgson 4; Stearman; Goals: Gargan 3/5; Reintoul 0/2

Sheffield Eagles: Mike Roby;  Dan Townson;  StepHen Price;  Grant Farrow;  Frank Wragg;  Dane McDonald;  Michael Hill;  Craig Jones;  Kyle Kesik;  Ryan Hepworth;  James Morrow;  Tommy Trayler;  Greg Hurst;  Greg Pygott;  Ed Battye;  Dan Hawksworth;  Simon Haigh.

Scorers: Dane McDonald 20 points from 2 tries and 6 (out of 6 goals), Others: tries- Price, Kesik, Morrow, Trayler

Match stats:

Penalties: York (6) 13  Sheffield (5) 9

Scrums: York (3) 7 Sheffield (5) 8

Tackles: 221 Top tackler : Tommy Trayler 31

Metres Gained: 689: Mike Roby 125, Ryan Hepworth 106

Completion: 1^st half: 12/17 - 70%; 2^nd half: 12/20 - 60%

Hit-ups:77 : Ryan Hepworth 12

Carries 116: Mike Roby 15

Scoring sequence: 4-0;8-0;14-0;14-6(Morrow);14-12(McDonald);14-18 (Kesik);14-24 (Trayler);20-24;20-30(McDonald);24-30;24-36(Price);30-36;34-36

Penalty Breakdown

SHEFFIELD Men of Match:  Forward: Ryan Hepworth. Backs Dane McDonald

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Sheffield Eagles (10) 36 Hunslet Hawks (16) 34

Saturday 17th May 2008 - Hillsborough Arena

Ref K Povah TJ J Mayhew TJ M Charlton

Eagles Swoop on Hawks

     Sheffield playing at home for the first time in 6 weeks and with an extremely youthful team managed to put the visitors onto the back foot from the kick-off. Their account was opened on 6 minutes when James Morrow crossed the whitewash, Dane McDonald converting and giving the home side some momentum, completing sets getting field position and passes were going to hand.

     Unfortunately this momentum was not maintained and the defensive side of the team went to sleep and it was there on the right where Hunslet targeted their attack and did so through out the game, and were successful with it. Hunslet's Townend opened their account with a well worked try and then rubbed salt into the wound by converting his own try.

      Sheffield were now on the back foot and remained so for the next quarter of the game. The discipline went a rye and conceding 3 penalties (2 for speaking out of turn) gave the advantage to Hunslet who capitalised on the situation, and Morton crossed the try line for the Hawks second score, which Townsend failed to convert this time.

     This inspired the visitors and when the Eagles made a double substitution, bring on two more of the young squad, it did quieten down the Hawks, but they still appeared to have that desire to win and Robinson crossed for the third try, converted by Townend.

     The Hawks were up for the challenge and whilst on an excellent drive, Kyle Kesik was adjudged to have completed a late tackle and spent the next 10 minutes having a rest.

     The Eagles responded very positively to being a man down and Grant Farrow was presented with an excellent opportunity to reduce the arrears which he took, but unfortunately McDonald was unable to add on the extras. The Eagles were now playing well with the 12 men and went into the break only a converted try in arrears.

     After the break the try of the season was scored when the Eagles were back to full strength. Captain Craig Jones lead by example and charged up the pitch, like a half back, and scored probably one of the best tries of his career. Again McDonald failed to add the extras.

     Mike Roby, who had been a rock in defence, as full back, then got his chance to get onto the score board and with McDonald making the extra points this time the Eagles had taken the lead, which they last held 42 minutes earlier.

     Unfortunately Hunslet had other ideas and regained the lead with Aitkin's first try when he broke through the right defensive line of the Eagles and brought the scores level. He then gave the visitors the lead with his conversion.

     Greg Hurst, who was playing in the centre for this game, instead of loose-forward, demonstrated his speed and skill a scored a great try out to the left of the posts, again it was not converted, but the narrow advantage had been restored. It was then like for like as Aitkin attacked the Eagles right flank and he went in for a very easy try and his second of the game, and he again added the extras.

     The Eagles appeared to go to sleep again, and made the Hawks think it was going to be easy. The attacking moves were breaking down and Elliott latched onto a loose ball and broke the suspect Eagles defence again and Aitkin added on the extras.

     With 10 minutes left on the clock the Eagles woke up, and with the reintroduction of Craig Jones, who continued to lead by example, pushed the team forward and continuing to look like a centre come half back rather than a prop, powered towards the visitors line and Kyle Kesik made up for his earlier misdemeanor by crossing the whitewash and McDonald added the extra two points.

     With just over 5 minutes left, there appeared to be more urgency within the team. Some good moves followed, with the ball being passed through several sets of hands and eventually Greg Hurst was rewarded with his second try of the game. The scores were no level and thankfully McDonald had a relatively easy conversion to make, which he did.

     Hunslet upped the intensity for the final three minutes and with Sheffield making an unnecessary error in this period, virtually handed the game back to the Hawks. The had control, chipped the ball through the Eagles defense, again, but all credit to the Hawks they did have at least three players off-side and the touch judge noticed them, and the grounding of the ball was waved off as "no-try" and the Eagles won their 3rd consecutive match by the narrow margin of two points.

Match Stats:

SheffieldEagles:Mike Roby; Frank Wragg; Grant Farrow; Greg Hurst; Dan Townson; Dane McDonald; Greg Pygott; Craig Jones; Kyle Kesik; Luke Holt; James Morrow; Richard Humphries; Nick Turnbull; Ben Vivian; Ed Battye; Joe Groves; Dan Hawksworth

Scorers:-T: Hurst 2, Roby, Farrow, Jones, Kesik, Morrow. G: McDonald 4


Hunslet : Gary McLelland; Rob Armstrong, Scott Aitken, Luke Pennington, Steve Morton; Dale Harris, Jonny Wainhouse; Ben Lawton, Gareth Walker, Liam Watlin, Ben Walkin, Dean Townend, Paul Robinson. Subs. Matty Firth, James Flynn, Ade Aderaye, Jason Elliott.

Scorers:-T: Aitken 2, Morton, Townend, Robinson, Elliott. G: Aitken 3, Morton 2

Tackles: 217 : Kyle Kesik =29
First man in:112 : Kyle Kesik 14
Metres gained 580: Mike Roby 109
Hit ups 97: Mike Roby 14
PENALTIES: Eagles (3) 5 Hunslet (6) 6
SCRUMS: Eagles (5)13 Hunslet (4) 9
 

Scoring sequence: 6-0;6-6;6-10;6-16;10-16;14-16;20-16;20-22;24-22;24-28;24-34;30-34;36-34

SHEFFIELD Man of Match: Forwards: Craig Jones;  Backs : Mike Roby

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Saturday 24th May 2008 - Postponed by Hunslet

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Sheffield Eagles Reserves (24) 40 Halifax RLCReserves (6) 26

31st May 2008

Hillsborough Arena

REFEREE:  A T Smith TJ S Slater TJ S Johnson

Match Gallery can be seen by clicking HERE

EAGLES COMPLETE DOUBLE OVER HALIFAX

Sheffield completed the double over Halifax RLFC in a very successful weekend when the Reserve Team outplayed Halifax Reserve Team at Hillsborough Arena on Saturday.

They went into the game high on he knowledge that the senior team had demolished Halifax's senior team at Don Valley the evening before and on the back of 3 straight wins, demonstrated an awesome power in their mix of youth and experience. Ably lead by Craig Jones the forwards dominated the play and it was within the first minute that Greg Hurst broke the Halifax line for the first score off the game. Dane McDonald converted his first kick and this was the start of him amassing a very creditable 16 points in the game, which included a well worked try.

This did turn out to be the game of two halves but the youngsters of the team demonstrated that they could step up to the mark and Greg Pygott and Stephen Price were certainly putting in a good display.

Kyle Kesik played another good game with some strong tackling and also managed to add to his season's try tally on 14 minutes, again converted by McDonald and the Eagles were far more successful at ball retention at the start of this game than they had been previously. Halifax found it difficult to make progress and the superb tackling of the Eagles was forcing errors from the visitors. The Eagles half backs were running the show and getting the ball spread out to the wings and Mike Roby was putting in a good display of attacking from defence.

The Eagles went further ahead with a try from hard working Ryan Hepworth on 20 minutes, again converted by McDonald, and it was if the Reserves were following the script written by the first team the previous evening. Constant pressure was being exerted on the Halifax line and seven minutes later Dan Townson crossed the line for the 4^th converted try for the home side. Halifax just did not know what had hit them. Good use of the substitutes maintained the pressure until the 35^th minute when Halifax managed to turn their side of the scoreboard with a try from prop James Fairbank, converted by Ben Bottomley. They had had only 10 sets of possession by then and the home team were certainly in the ascendancy.

The second half started in a similar vein t the first with tries being scored by McDonald Stephen Price and Ryan Hepworth going in for his second. McDonald added the extras on for two of those tries. Shortly before Hepworth scored the proceedings were brought to a halt when an accidental clash of heads saw Grant Farrow having to leave the field of play with fractured nose, and two of the Halifax players ended up requiring the assistance of the paramedics.

Shortly after Hepworth had taken the Eagles score on to 40, the 'Fax team came into their own with 2 tries from Mattew* Bravo and a try a piece for Scott Caley and Shaun Garrod.  Unfortunately it was too little - too late for the visitors, who had forced the home side onto the back foot on several occasions during the game with good attacks which resulted in the Eagles having to drop out from behind their own posts on no less than 4 occasions.

It was a spirited defence by a good Halifax side who were just not able to deal with a very well organised set of forwards let by Craig Jones, Ryan Hepworth and Tom Buckenham and the backs were well marshaled by Dane McDonald who had excellent support from Mike Roby, Grant Farrow and Greg Hurst.

An excellent result which continues the progress in the league, with a 4^th consecutive win in 6 games.

Please Note:   * Name spelt on the team sheet this way. It is not a typo.

Sheffield Eagles: Mike Roby,Stephen Price,Grant Farrow,Greg Hurst,Dan Townson,Dane McDonald,Ben Vivian,Craig Jones ©,Kyle Kesik,Tom Buckenham,Ryan Hepworth,Ryan James,Richard Humphries,Greg Pygott,Mark Renshaw-Smith,Luke Holt,Simon Perry.

Scorers: Tries- Greg Hurst (1); Kyle Kesik (14); Ryan Hepworth (20,55); Dan Townson (27); Dane McDonald (45). Goals:  Dane McDonald 6/7

Halifax RLFC: Scott Caley, Ben Hinsley, Chris Holroyde, Danny Foulds, Mattew* Bravo, Shaun Garrod, Greg Firth, Tom Guinan, Stuart Proctor, James Fairbank, Bret Durkin, Iain Davies,J osh Barlow, Ben Bottomley, Martin Silcox, Graham Charlesworth, James Yarker.

Scorers: Tries -Fairbank (35), Bravo (58,73),Caley (65), Garrod (78). Goals: Bottomley 3/3, Silcox 0/2

Match Stats:

Penalties Awarded

Summary of Reasons: Off side 5; Holding Down 1; High Tackle 4

 Penalties Conceded