Recap
| It was the ‘fight of the flights’ as the Hawks took on the Eagles at the South Leeds Stadium today.After last weeks defeat at Halifax today’s fixture was definetley going to be entertaining. Sheffield have a reputation for being a tough team to beat, but hopefully the Hawks would be a match for them.
The opening 15 minutes of a game are the most important and keeping the opposition a safe distance from the line is an essential factor.Exactly the same as last week the Hawks failed to do so, the defensive efforts were slow and the visitors managed to grasp an 18 point advantage. With Yere and Morrison proving a constant trouble in centre field things didnt look promosing and to make matters worse the Sheffield side bagged one more 24-0 down was a difficult position to get back from.The set up on the field today saw a few changes to positions presumably to cater for the injuries that the Hawks had suffered in recent weeks.Maybe it was this or just a lack of confidence that caused such sloppy defence. Leaving players stranded in no-mans land is always going to end badly, Liam Higgins a populaur Sheffield forward battled his way across for the fourth, successfully converted the game was slowly running away from the home side.Things didnt improve in a hurry and as the squad became unsettled the referee made the decsion to send Danny Rat to the bin not something that would help the cause.With just 12 men out on the park 2 more tries stunned the fans.It was evidently not effort letting down the Hawks, simply concentration. As the end neared, Hunslet desperately needed that little bit of magic, back from his break on the bench Rats manged to latch onto a loose ball escape a tackle and pelted down the wing, a safe inside pass to Steve Lewis and then back out to Davies who flew past the back line defence and just out paced Togagae to cruise over the line.At 36-4 i’m sure Eaton would have plenty to say at the break some stern words as well as some encourging ones.Would the second half see us come back with a bang? A try to open up the second half was just what we needed.Marchy stabbed a kick deep into the left corner baffling the Eagles and allowing Nathaniel to ground it for his 5th of the season so far, Rats landed the conversion perfectly and awarded his side the two.Something had finally clicked and for the next 10 minutes the Hawks played like the team they really are aggressive and effective defence caused errors, simple and clever sets meant the Eagles had to work hard for the first time in the game! Benjafield and Lowey were the forwards making things tricky for the oppostion, their power knocking over the defence allowed the backs to do their thing.Danny Allen (who had been consistently stand out) was more than happy to take the ball over the line and push the Hawks a little further forward.The scoring did not stop there, a kick from behind the play and flying centre Gareth Davies appeared from nowere and reached out to score.The Hawks really had pulled it back and played their hearts out this half which had certainly not gone unnoticed with the fans.But as a penalty got the Eagles within touching distance of the line, the oppurtunity was spotted by Henderson who pushed his way into the gap and finished things off.A game of two halves, 22-40 was not the ideal score but with two difficult games behind us, hopefully things will improve with time. Man of the match: Neil Lowe Well done to the boys See you next week at The South Leeds Stadium for the 2nd round of the Challenge Cup as the Hunslet Hawks take on The Royal Navy! Niamh |
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