Sat 27 Jan 2024
The longest journey of the season, to the East Coast to face Hornsea RUFC, on a pleasant afternoon, turned into a game to forget as Globe Holidays sponsored Stocksbridge Rugby crashed to a 55pts – nil defeat. A patched up Stocksbridge with some players carrying injuries into the game started brightly with ‘clock tower’ Beal, & Reece ‘diesel’ Aspin making inroads into the home sides territory. Three long range, break away tries gave the home side the advantage, much against the run of play & Head Coach Andy Lawrence must have wondered how his troops were behind by 31pts to nil at the half time break ! Stocksbridge had their chances, young Norman & the hard working ‘eggsy’ Bowman combined well & should have scored, but defensive lapses & some poor first up tackling allowed the home side to build a commanding score. Stocksbridge lost hooker Ricky ‘rooney’ James after 20 minutes with a back injury & former skipper Adam Roles-Middlehurst succumbed to a head injury to further deplete the beleaguered resources of the gallant visitors. Whilst Hornsea built on their already winning lead, credit to the Blue Wall who, to their credit, never gave in & showed a lot of character to keep competing. They were eventually rewarded when The Clock Tower crashed over from a short, quickly taken penalty for a consolation try, Andy Beal is kindly sponsored by Mr Mick Gribbins. Jack Pearson, sponsored by Stuart’s Karaoke Disco added the conversion. Stocksbridge were relieved to hear the whistle with the final score of Hornsea RUFC 55pts – Stocksbridge Rugby 7pts. Stocksbridge now drop to 5th in the Counties 4 Yorkshire (Phase 2) South league ladder, & will be hoping for a better defensive performance when they entertain Knottingley RUFC at Coal Pit Lane stadium next Saturday, 3rd February with a 2.15pm kick off. ‘The scoreline doesn’t reflect the game or our effort’, reflected Head Coach Andy Lawrence afterwards, adding, ‘we need to sharpen up our defensive systems & tackling technique, which will be the focus of our sessions in the coming week’s training’. The Bradfield Brewery player of the match award went to Reece ‘diesel’ Aspin for a gritty display & a mammoth tackling stint, whilst January’s Man of Steel award sponsored by John Heath & Sons has been won by Vice-Captain, Andy Beal for his workrate & consistency in performance, & 2 tries also helped his case.
Meanwhile three Stocksbridge youngsters have been nominated for representative trials for Yorkshire U20’s Group. Harrison Norman, Josh Kerr & James Christopherson have become regular fixtures in the 1st XV since their early season debuts & the Club have high hopes for their development & progression.
