A gritty display full of endeavour, & a slice of good fortune, saw Stocksbridge Rugby home to victory against Yorkshire Division Three rivals Northallerton, by the narrow margin of 17pts to 12pts.

Missing the injured duo of Sam Whitaker & Steffan Kazmierski, Stocksbridge were able to recall the venerable back rower Ricky Rowett after injury, & big Jason Hirst to the interchange bench after suspension, along with Ricky James who took his place in the front row.

Conditions were good for rugby & the supporters were treated to a mini festival by the rapidly growing junior section of the club, as a curtain raiser before the main event, & Club stalwart & Bar Steward Mick ‘selwyn’ Taylor supplied the match ball..

The game started quietly with both teams trying to test each other out, until a sharp break by the visiting scrum half who broke from a ruck & dummied his way through the defence to score the game’s opening try under the posts, leaving a simple conversion to follow.

Both packs were going hard at each other, with both enjoying periods of dominance, & a technical scrum offence left Scott Bowskill a simple penalty opportunity to register the first points for Stocksbridge Rugby.

With more territory & good possession, barnstorming centre’s Brown (D) & O’Leary (L) made dents in the visitors defence, & some good handling through the back line created an opportunity for flying winger Callum Green, who was bundled into touch by the covering defence to save a certain score.

Stocksbridge piled on the pressure, & a deft pass from diminutive half back Tommy Hughes found the eager Dave Brown to crash over for a well deserved team try, & the trusty right boot of Bowskill did the rest. When Northallerton did gain possession they found the Stocksbridge defence, & O’Leary in particular a difficult obstacle to evade, some brutal hits left their mark on the opposing back line, & a half time score of Stocksbridge Rugby 10pts – Northallerton 7pts left the result in the balance of this keenly fought contest.

Stocksbridge came out for the 2nd stanza in a determined frame of mind, & injury’s to all the Browns, Connor (shoulder) David (knee) & Ben (ankle) forced Coach Tyers to make the most of his resources from the interchange bench. The strength of the squad stood up as more pressure allowed skipper Keenan a little room to show & go, & scuttle over the line from close in, Bowskill again converted to give the home side a bit of breathing room, & they needed it !!

Northallerton kept coming at Stocksbridge, & their live wire scrum half again ripped the Stocksbridge defence apart to score a try in the corner, fortunately too far out to convert. Questions must again be asked about the defence, or lack of it during this period.

A tense final 10 minutes was played virtually all on the Stocksbridge Rugby goal line, with wave after wave of attack being repelled by some great & determined defence, twice a would be try scorer was held up over the line by Tommy Hughes, who showed his class in both defence & offence to cap a fine man of the match performance & the Bradfield Brewery award. All the Team deserve praise for their heroic defence of the try line during this sustained period of pressure. Bowskill was a bit too enthusiastic in his defending as he was sin binned late on for a high tackle however, the home side stood firm & a final score of Stocksbridge Rugby 17pts – Northallerton 12pts was greeted with relief all around the Coal Pit Lane ground.

A close call, but a good with for the valley boys who travel to Leeds next week for a clash with Leeds Medics & Dentists, there is a bus running for supporters & details can be obtained from the club.

‘this is a good result for us’ said Head Coach Andy Tyers afterwards ‘the character during those last minutes was excellent & typifies what we are building here’ adding ‘our injury list is stacking up now, so there’s some hard rehab work to be done this week to prepare for another tough fixture in Leeds.’

This result sees Stocksbridge Rugby up to 8th place in the league.