Sheffield Tigers 34 - 22 Cleckheaton

Cleckheaton had to make several more enforced changes for this difficult league encounter at Dore Moor. Carl Mason and Richard Piper were still serving suspensions, Craik Rika was working and Matt Burrows was laid low with swine flu. Veteran Neil Gillan plugged the gap in the second row and Tom Clough started at No 7. Both Pete Murphy and Dominic Castle returned and Owen Edwards made a welcome return to stand off. A source of worry this season at Moorend has been the continuous enforced changes to the previous week's side for a variety of reasons. Not once has coach Dave Harrison been able to select from strength and this has inevitably prevented the development of combinations.

Despite an improved performance, Cleckheaton dropped into the bottom two of National 3 North. On this evidence they have the backs to match most sides but far too often have lacked the necessary stature to secure parity of possession. The early play was punctuated by errors with Tigers able to both win their own lineout possession and disrupt Cleckheaton's. Tiger's new centre Simon Honey was first to put points on the board when he broke through poor tackling for a good try. Full Back Will Durandt converted.

Slowly but surely Cleckheaton clawed their way back into the game with winger Ross Hayden creating space with a kick over the flat footed defence providing full back Joe Massarella with the equalising try which was converted by Hayden.

Tigers continued their remorseless dominance of close quarter exchanges and were rewarded on the stroke of half time when No 8 Nick Pearson touched down at the back of a rolling maul.

The second half was once more dominated by the home pack and in the 45th minute Durandt kicked a penalty. Seven minutes later hooker Hugo Horn again finished off another rolling maul to which Durandt added the extras. Cleckheaton had their chances and several promising breaks in midfield from Owen Edwards and player coach Peter Murphy ultimately came to nothing. However, Cleckheaton did gain some reward from a sustained period of pressure when Ross Hayden reduced the arrears with a penalty.

The last ten minutes of the game provided a feast of entertainment with four tries, two for Tigers and two for a resilient and plucky Cleckheaton side. A converted penalty try and a try from substitute Charlie Spon-Smith completed the scoring for Tigers, with two good tries from Joe Massarella and Ross Hayden giving a more balanced and truthful reflection of the overall play.

Cleckheaton can take heart from a competitive display which showed improvements from the previous two performances. The pack is small compared to most sets of National 3 North forwards, but resilience comes from togetherness as a unit and spirit can overcome a size difference if that sense of unity is achieved.