Kestrels
Matches
Sat 21 Sep 2013  ·  Premiership
Cleckheaton RUFC
Kestrels
24
7
Driffield 2
Kestrels make it 3 out of 3 with bonus point win 24 - 7

Kestrels make it 3 out of 3 with bonus point win 24 - 7

Gary Beasty21 Sep 2013 - 19:12
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The kestrels made it 2 bonus point wins out of 2 this season

The Kestrels had a real test to what life in the Championship will be like against a well drilled Driffield side who finished mid table in this league last season.

Looking at the Driffiels side at the kick off they appear to have the same ethos as Cleckheaton with the emphasis on developing local home grown talent as they apppeared to match Cleck in the youth department.

The 1st 15 mins saw both defences on top with play sandwiched in between both teams 22 metre lines.

The Cleck back line was well marshalled by Tom Crew who though maintaining he had retired appeared to have a pair of nice shiney new boots, his experience remains invaluble having youngsters George Speight and Lewis Beasty outside him on the wings.

Cleck started to assert pressure but were giving away good field position by some infringements when a cool head would have been the better option than fighting for a lost ball. Something some of the younger lads will improve on with a bit more time on their sides.

On 25 mins after another bout of pressure Cleck. took the lead with a well timed inside pass from Captain Jarrod Toulson finding Jack Seddon coming in on an angle with a perfectly timed run to go in at the side of the posts Toulson added the extras.

This proved to be the only score of the half

The 2nd half started much the same way the 1st ended with Cleck building pressure and from a line out 15 metres out the Kestrels showed that the catch and drive used by the 1st team is a valuable weapon in their armoury. Cammy Brannan found Matt Beasty at the rear of the line out a combination which created plenty of ball all afternoon, Beasty set the ball up and a rolling maul took Cleck to line with prop Matthew Hadfield scoring for the 2nd week running.

The popular prop excelled this week as he played a full 25 mins in the 1st period

Midway through the 2nd period Driffield showed plenty of Character and that they weren't here to lie down and hand Cleck the points amnd after Liam Goldthorpe had been harshly sent to the sin bin for a technical scrummaging offence had there best spell in the game and could quite easily have taken the lead but for 2 brilliant cover tackles from Tom Brook and Paddy Horrigan.
Driffields pressure eventually paid off when they scored a well worked try under the posts. this took the score to 12-7

As was the case most of last season when the Kestrels are under pressure they seem to find a way out of trouble and when scrum half Marl Fletcher made a superb snipping run taking him deep in to Driffields half a well timed pass enable Horrigan to go in at the corner.

Driffield then began chasing the game and a loose pass out wide was intercepted by Horrigan who raced in from 40 meteres out to finish the scoring for the day. Toulson added the extras

Nick Holland had a solid game on his return as did Ricky Motlib who is nursing his way back after a lengthy injury.

Team
L.Goldthorpe, C.Brannan, R.Motlib, M.Hadfield, M.Beasty, C.Mason, N.Holland J.White, J.Seddon, R. Brown, M.Fletcher, J.Toulson, T.Crew, P.Horrigan, L.Beasty, G.Speight, T.Brook, J.Green, J.Firth, B.Todd

Match details

Match date

Sat 21 Sep 2013

Kickoff

15:00

Competition

Premiership
Team overview
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