Cleckheaton 12 - 16 Northern

Cleckheaton’s nine match winning streak came to an end at Moorend on Saturday as they came second to Northern in a thrilling encounter on ,at last, a firm playing surface.
Cleck were straight into the attack from the off but their progress came to halt with the first of many lost possession in contact. The commitment of both sides was wholehearted and big tackles rained in from both sides as each battled for ascendancy. Cleck were dominant in the set pieces ,especially the scrum, where they were making a real mess of the Northern front row but ,unlike international rugby ,this doesn’t seem to count for anything at this level except a series of re-set scrums. The nett result from all this attrition was that play remained, for the most part, in centre field until ,in the twenty third minute, the speedy Northern winger, Dom Fawcett ,executed an excellent step and cut back through the tiniest of holes in the Cleck defence to sprint 30 metres and score near the posts ,Ed Cockroft converted.
Play resumed in centre field but with half – time fast approaching the Cleck forwards made ground into the Northern twenty two, some clever interplay between forwards and backs allowing winger James Wilson to barge through the last defender and score halfway out,Iain Gordon added the conversion. Seven points apiece at halftime.
Five minutes into the second half Cleck were down to fourteen men as a forward was yellow carded for retaliation after his side had been awarded a penalty but this did not detract from the intensity of the contest.However Cleck seemed to become increasingly frustrated by their inability to finish off promising approach work and Northern took the opportunity to latch onto loose balls to escape into Cleck’s half.For the most part the home sides scramble defence was up to repelling these break outs ,but twice they transgressed at defensive rucks and twice Cockroft banged over the resultant penalties to give Northern a six point lead as the game moved into the last quarter.
With ten minutes to go it was Northern’s turn to give away a penalty in their own twenty two ,Cleck opted for their favoured catch and drive line-out ,the first part worked, number eight Richard Piper dotted down his twenty seventh try of the season but Gordon’s attempted conversion slid across the face of the posts .Just one point in it.
Cleck remained in the Northern twenty two and attacked with vigour but were frustrated by a series of penalties for not releasing in the tackle although they had superior numbers at the breakdowns .With time running out Northern themselves were eventually penalised for a ruck offence ,Cleck surprisingly elected to go for goal ,rather than the catch and drive but the normally reliable Gordon, just pulled the kick past the left up-right. It was not be Cleck’s day, this was finally confirmed in injury time when, after the home side was awarded a penalty in their own half, the decision was overturned for a late tackle and Cockroft added another three points to Northern total as the final whistle blew.