Sat 3 Dec 2022
Disappointment on the road for Bridge this weekend as Hornsea steal on 80th with a penalty kick.
Bridge made the long trip to Hornsea at the weekend on a coach provided by team sponsor Globe Holidays. After 3 consecutive wins in a row the pigs were hopeful to make it 4. Bridge welcomed back centre Jack pearson, fly half Paul Kelly and back rower Pete Newton after recovering from a hamstring injury picked up at Aireborough earlier on in the year. With missing Ben Tyers, the O'Leary brothers, Liam Dyson, Jacob Crosby, John Saddington, Daniel Burt, Jonathan Gill, Sam Miles & Dylan O'Keefe. Ryan Smith instructed to take the reins at full back and Jack Spencer was shuffled to outside centre.
It was a grey and chilly afternoon, after losing the toss, bridge was attacking into the slight wind with the odd appearance of the bright low sun though the clouds, which made any high ball difficult to see at times. Hornsea kicked off and within a few minutes ended up in the Stocksbridge half and won a penalty their 9 slotted over with ease and this was to be the story of the day. The game carried on with a lot of stops starting and no string of passes from either side. A penalty was awarded to bridge just outside the 22 of the Hornsea for in at the side of the ruck, the attempt drifted left to the post and left the score at 3-0 to Hornsea. After more stops start passages of play, Stocksbridge were defending in the Hornsea half and managed to obtain a turnover, the ball was passed out to the wing on a counterattack, where Adam-Roles Middlehurst finished off a good passage of play in the corner, beating his man on the outside. Conversion attempt was missed. 5-3 to Bridge. The rest of the half carried on in a similar fashion of stop start, with several penalties and infringements against Bridge, with another at around 30 minutes, which was pushed wide by the Hornsea 9. The ball was still in open play as Paul Kelly retrieved on the try line and cleared the lines with a great clearance kick into touch. However, a scrum was awarded to Stocksbridge on their own 22 line as a compromise as the ball was initially signalled to have been dead from the penalty kick and then deemed not dead. The scrum resulted in another Hornsea penalty for front row infringements, the easier close-range kick was slotted over this time by the Hornsea 9. 5-6 Hornsea. Still with fragmented phases of play between Stockbridge found it impossible to get beyond two phases, but they found themselves with a scrum just outside the Hornsea 5-meter line, where Jack 'Milky' Martin ran over the line with a great pick up from the base of the scrum. Conversion attempt was missed. This left the half time score Stocksbridge 10 - 6 Hornsea.
Half time came and it was a similar story to much of the first half, fragmented play with no more than two phases of play occurring. Another penalty was awarded to Hornsea in which the 9 again slotted it over with ease, leaving the score at Stocksbridge 10-9 Hornsea. Against the odds with the flow of the game, Stocksbridge again found a rare moment where they won their own ball at the scrum without any penalisation, so Jack 'milky' Martin took his opportunity once again running once in from the back of the scrum from the Hornsea 22-meter line, taking the full back over with him. Conversion attempt missed, leaving the score at Stocksbridge 15 - 9 Hornsea and 3 try to nil, with 10 minutes remaining. Stocksbridge’s focus was now on a 4th try to obtain the bonus point and see this game out. This was not to be, with the Hornsea boy's putting together a few phases of play and the 10 switched with a change of direction pass behind the ruck, which caught the bridge defence on the short side and was finished off by their 12. The Hornsea 9 missed the conversion to everyone’s surprise and left the score at Stocksbridge 15 - 14 Hornsea, with around 2 minutes left on the clock. Stocksbridge found themselves with a scrum just outside their 22-meter line, with around a minute on the clock and with the Hornsea 9 standing in front of the tunnel with the go ahead from the man in the middle. The scrum eventually was allowed to continue and another penalty against Stocksbridge was conceived as all the Hornsea pack stood up, easy attempt for the 9 to put them in front on last play. It wasn't over yet, with a restart hacked back at Stocksbridge left them with possession on last play, where the most sting of phases was allowed to continue and multiple infringements from the desperate Hornsea defence. A penalty was awarded, but a kick to the corner was denied due to it being the 83rd minute of the match. Stocksbridge had no choice but to tap and go and continue their only allowed momentum of the match with hope to get their 4th try, more infringements were made in desperation and the match was ended, leaving the final score at Stocksbridge 15 - Hornsea 17. Hornsea Nicked it in the dying minutes. Paul Kelly at number 10 was awarded the man of the match for Stocksbridge
It was a strange day on the road this week for the boys as the game felt impossible to gain any momentum at all with no real flow. The boys were left feeling slightly robbed, as they did all they could with the power they had, and the performance cannot be faulted. Club captain Adam Frith mentioned “It is one to forget about this week as not much rugby was allowed to be played. I believe neither team will take much from the game, but one positive for us is that the head to heads Vs Hornsea this season is at 6 try’s to 1 in our favour, which speaks for itself, but does leave us scratching our heads as to how the fixture was los this weekt”. Bridge are back on the road again next Saturday to local rivals Mosborough, where they hope to amend this week’s hiccup.
