Garforth 14 Stocksbridge 21

This was a game of 2 halves. In the first half uphill and against the breeze, Stocksbridge played some of their best rugby this season. The back row harried the opposition into mistakes, the scrum was absolutely dominant, with veteran Ian Dyson and the rest of the front row cleaning out the opposition and stand off Ricky Christopherson finding holes in the Garforth defence.
It was great to watch and the referee allowed a free flowing game. On the attack, Bridge earned an attacking scrum, which, when wheeled, they had reset with the opposition’s put in. Stung, a great effort destroyed the Garforth pack and alert as ever scrum half Adam Frith nipped in to claim the try. The curling conversion by Scot Bowskill set them on their way. A series of attacks and Bridge refused a penalty under the posts, a good decision as the scrum trundled the 8 metres for Nigel Dowkes to show he could score from a foot. The try under the post gave an easy conversion to Bowskill. The Captain came across to the touchline to make sure your reporter had not missed how well the scrum was playing, which would have actually been difficult. A scrum on the 22 metre line and a pick up from Nigel Dowkes, who made ground before feeding the silverheeled Adam Frith who sliced through to score. This left Garforth in disarray and Stocksbridge 21-0 up at half time, surely a bonus point beckoned downhill in the second half.
This was when Bridge reached out for the revolver, took aim and squarely hit their own foot. They had to make enforced changes with Ian Dyson coming off with a strained hamstring, but other changes tore the heart out of what had been a well oiled machine. They huffed and puffed but showed no cutting edge at all. In fact the home side came more and more into the contest. Then the revolver struck again as 3 players were yellow carded all together as the referee became fed up with the teams ill discipline. Captain Rhys Keenan even taking one for the whole team. Down to 12 and desperate defence, but even so Garforth scored 2 converted tries to get within 7, before Bridge were restored to full strength. Then the game resumed its previous character as Stocksbridge hammered at the line. Frith claimed a hatrick but was denied by an alienated ref and the game finished as an away win, but without that vital bonus point.

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