Kestrels win away at Brods.

Written by Mr Beasty.

The Kestrels travelled to Old Brods on Saturday with a very young side with 9 of the starting team aged 19 or under.

Call ups to the 1st team and players unavilable resulted in a much reshuffled back line which saw Jack Seddon play in the unaccustomed role of ouside centre.

If Brods thought they were in for an easy afternoon looking at the age of the Cleck team then they had a reality check in the 1st 10 mins when Jarrad Toulson chipped a ball through for Seddon to gather and go around the covering full back and score under the posts. Toulson added the extras.

The game continued to ebb and flow with Cleck holding the upper hand with the young forwards chasing and harrassing brods at every opportunity.
They were well marshalled by Carl Mason who used his experience to get around the park and be in the right place at the right time for most of the game.

The 2nd score was down to some excellent play by the forwards with Cleck gaining the ball on the brods 22 and a succession of pick up and drives from Mason, Matt Beasty and Liam Goldthorpe taking the ball to within 5 metres. Not to be outdone Will Denham picked up and was driven over the line by Cammy Brannan and Josh White which would have been a feature in the Colts games last season. Toulson missing the extras.

Brods then had their best spell of the game as their forwards began to dominate the set scrums. The Kestrels back line were caught out of position and were punished with some swift crossfield passing to score in the corner.

Cleck introduced N.clayton at this point who's size helped shore up the scrum he replaced Sam Crowther who had an impressive 1st period but had to leave the field with a leg injury.

Just before the interval Toulson added a penalty to take the score at half time to 15-5.

The 2nd period started with Brods in the ascendnacy but some fine defensive work in midfield by Tom Brook prevented them getting into any dangerous areas with ball in hand.

Cleck though started to get back into the game with Toulson getting good field position from his boot and the dominance of M. Beasty in the line out, he was well supported by young Rob Brown who between them spoiled or stole any decent possession Brods hoped to get.

Midway through the 2nd period Brods broke out wide and caught Cleck out going outside a couple of would be defenders to score unconverted.

The game was now starting to get niggly with a few skirmishes with both sides getting involved 1 saw Matthew Hadfield sent to the bin along with the Brods scrum half who was their play maker. Haddy belived it was a tactical move on his part.

When Hadfield was reintroduced he got the killer score after Cleck stole a 5 man line out 10 metres out he was given the ball and going downhill nobody was going to stop him going in near the posts. Toulson added the extras again.

The game then became stop start with the referee continuing to have words with both sides and Brods playing out the final 10 mins with 14 men after another yellow card.

A good result taking into account the age and players missing which can only be good for the club with this many youngsters starting to come through from our junior section

Team
Jake, L.Beasty, J.Seddon, T.Brook, G.Speight, J.Toulson, M.Fletcher, L.Goldthorpe, C.Brannan, M.Hadfield, C.Mason, M.Beasty, J.White, S.Crowther, R.Brown, N.Clayton, W.Denham, J.Firth, M.Trotter