Moortown 12 Cleckheaton 27

Cleckheaton stormed to an impressive bonus point victory today at windswept Moortown.
Cleckheaton had a very different team out today, disrupted by injury and illness with 4 changes from last week's bruising encounter at Brodlieans.
Jack Seddon and Niall Jackson joined Andy Piper on the injured list with Ollie Depledge recovering from illness . There was a first start for Will Denham at prop, Thiu Barnard continued at lock and Brad Marsden was at flanker. In the backs , Tom Breakwell resumed at scrum half replacing Depledge and there was a 1st team debut off the bench for Ollie Clark who was joined by Robin Bennett and Jack Toulson.
Cleckheaton kicked off on a windswept afternoon and were put on the back foot by conceding 3 quick penalties which didn't help the team to settle early, however from the first attacking move from Cleckheaton, they got on the board with a try in bizarre fashion. Dale Breakwell put in a crossfield kick for Mikey Hayward on the left , he took the ball and was tackled inside the Moortown 22, Will Denham drove the ball in and the ball went out to the opposite wing where the Moortown defence couldn't deal with the loose ball from Dom Flanagan's neat grubber and he was alert enough to apply the touchdown for his 6th try of the season. The conversion went wide but Cleckheaton led 0-5 after 6 minutes.
On 12 minutes, Cleckheaton got a 2nd try after Marsden won possession at a line out, good work from Richard Piper combining with Dom Brambani and Joe Flanagan ran a superb line inside of Tom Hainsworth to score his 2nd try of the season, Dale Breakwell converted 0-12. From the restart, Moortown had a player sent to the sin bin for tackling a player in the air and it wasn't long before the visitors made the numerical advantage count. Moortown conceded a scrum 5 metres from their try line and the ball was moved left from Tom Breakwell to Dale Breakwell and on to Brambani who gave the scoring pass to Tom Hainsworth who powered across the line, Dale Breakwell converted 0-19 midway through the first half. Breakwell also added a penalty goal on 27 minutes to extend the lead to 0-22, this took his points tally for the season to 101 on his 50th appearance for the club. On 35 minutes, leading try scorer Mikey Hayward limped out of the game to be replaced by Jack Toulson. On 39 minutes , Tom Breakwell was sent to the naughty step for 10 minutes to calm down. Half time score Moortown 0 Cleckheaton 22.
Ollie Clark and Robin Bennett come on to the field to replace Thiu Barnard and Will Denham at half time. Dale Breakwell then got shown the Yellow Card for a deliberate knock on and joined his brother in the bin. Moortown took advantage with a fine try on 44 minutes when Henry Aaronson outstripped the defence to score in the corner , kick was missed 5-22 .
Cleckheaton got their bonus point try on 52 minutes whilst still down to 14 men, Dom Flanagan got his second try of the game with a barnstorming run down the right. Tom Breakwell missed the conversion 5 -27.
On 55 minutes , Cleckheaton were back at full strength only for Dom Brambani to incur the wrath of the referee for a tip tackle and he was dispatched to the bin for 10 minutes.
Moortown were camped in the visitors half for long spells but didn't make much progress due to poor handling and a massive defensive effort. Marsden and Plunkett and skipper Richard Piper were all contenders for MoM awards, but the shift everyone put in when down to 14 and 13 men was phenomenal. Moortown worked a clear overlap down their right but the final pass only found the touch judge. Cleckheaton had more chances in the final 10 minutes but were pulled back for a forward pass and a contentious knock on in quick succession.
Moortown got the final score of the game on 75 minutes with a solo try which was converted 12-27.
This was an important win for Cleckheaton, they now have 61 points for the season , the same as Driffield who lost at home to Ilkley today and occupy 4th place in the table behind Heath, Ilkley and Driffield.
No game for the 1st XV next week , hostilities will resume on 12th February with a highly anticipated game versus Driffield, kick off at 2.15.