Doncaster Amateurs 53 Stocksbridge 11

This was a lesson well taught, lets hope it’s a lesson well learnt. Doncaster Amateurs are amateur in name only playing on Doncaster Knights 1st team pitch, playing in their kit, using their facilities, back up and coaches. In order to live with them, Stocksbridge needed a plan, to execute that plan and to stick to it even when things turned difficult. They started very well, competing all over the pitch and although they had the worst of the game territorially they were against the wind and the scoreboard still showed nil nil after 25 minutes. A penalty into the corner saw Doncaster drive the ball from the lineout, a ploy to which Bridge had no answer all day, the ball was run back down the blindside, a tackle missed and Amateurs were not only 7 pts up but had their tails up as well. A further 17pts were conceded in 10 minutes as tackles were missed and the ball hoofed aimlessly down the middle.
Half time should have been the period to regroup and then nibble away at the lead, but wholesale changes to personnel, was not what was required.
However Stocksbridge started brightly enough, penning Amateurs back and scrum half Adam Frith reduced the arrears with a penalty and then a second attempt from the touch line fell just short, but resulted in a 5 metre scrum. From this the home side gave away a penalty, but instead of gathering the points to put them under pressure, a short penalty move was run and Amateurs ran away with the ball. They then won the following lineout against the throw and drove it over for their fifth try. This knocked all the steam out of this Bridge side and with the centres not being aligned correctly, full back Ricky Christofferson had to come into the line and with no winger covering it left acres of space for the kick through and this Doncaster exploited on two occasions with any one of three players available to score. First up tackles were missed and the team looked very disjointed and disorganised. They played with spirit but were cut apart because Doncaster played as a team.
With the game out of sight Scot Bowskill landed a penalty and then Stocksbridge’s best player, Peter Newton alertly took a quick penalty and dived over. At 46-11 the supporters hoped we had had the last word, but even this was denied to us as from innocuous ball in midfield the Doncaster centre ran 60 metres being patted on his way by a woeful defence to score between the posts and raise the half century for the home side.

Man of the Match – Scrum Half – Adam Leslie Frith.

Next Match – 3rd November 2012 – Home Match Vs Adwick le street – 3pm Kick off.