Meden Vale 13 - 15 Sheffield Oaks

 

Trys - Scott & Alastair.

Pen - Aaron (1)

Con - Aaron (1)

 

Yesterday saw Sheffield Oaks' success continue with an away win following the club's first visit to Medan Vale. Oaks won the toss and elected to use the wind and slight slope in the first half.

 

The game started off evenly and after a few minutes Meden Vale took a 3-0 lead following a penalty being given for Oaks being offside. This lead was short lived as Oaks were awarded a penalty themselves around the Meden Vale 22 yard line. Aaron calmly slotted this between the posts and equalised.

 

The game continued in a frustrating manner with a number of scrums and penalties being awarded to both teams for a number of knock-ons and offside offences. The game was nearly abandoned around the 15 minute mark when the Meden Vale stand-off kicked the ball from within their 22 area and it hit the referee square in the face with the pointy end!! After a couple of minutes he regained his composure and dignity allowing the game to continue with yet another scrum!!

 

Oaks then began to pass the ball wide and looked a lot more threatening with some great runs by Scott, Johnny & Andrew who sliced through the defence and made a lot of territory. Oaks’ first score came from one such move with the ball being passed wide along the back line culminating in Bob drawing his man before offloading to Scott who still had some work to do before crashing over and scoring. The conversion was missed and Oaks returned for the restart with increased confidence and an 8-3 lead.

 

Meden Vale didn’t give up and put in some good attacking runs including a couple of good breaks by the left wing, one such break looked like a certain try but Poggles tracked back superbly and bundled the winger into touch...danger over. He also took one against the head in a scrum just to show he didn’t have aspirations of playing in the backs.

 

The second half saw Oaks nearly score again following the restart when Anael caught the ball then kicked it over the Meden Vale full back this resulted in Alastair securing the ball and crossing the line under the posts but being held up. Following another scrum Meden Vale took the lead with the ball being passed to the scrum half and who crossed the line. The try was converted and Meden Vale took a 13-8 lead.

 

Oaks’ back 3 were kept busy with a lot of high balls but all were calmly gathered and great counter attacks ensued. These continued despite calls from the Meden Vale supporters of “stop kicking it to the full back...he can catch!!” Meden Vale tried a number of rolling mauls which didn’t really materialise and a great steal from Tim saw us attack making a quite a few yards whilst the Meden Vale forwards continued to drive in the belief they still had the ball!

 

A number of quick penalties and some darting runs by Wardy and George maintained the pressure but everyone was conscious that the clock was ticking and we just couldn’t get the elusive points we needed. A scrum deep in the Meden Vale 22 resulted in Bully charging down another clearance and adding another stand off’s scalp to his collection, the referee was then heard to say “so you’re not meant to use your face then”. The ball bounced over the try line and unfortunately their full back beat Wardy to the touch down.

 

As the darkness crept in and the smell of coal fires increased the floodlights were switched on, this initially caused some confusion to Archer who was heard to repeatedly mumble that having four suns in the daytime was tantamount to black magic. Once it was explained to him that it was simply electricity and light bulbs he stopped pointing towards the sky and the game continued.

 

Oaks continued with the pressure and some great tackles were made by Simon and Matt. Nick, Andy and Brian all came on and Nick made some good runs following Johnny having to leave the field because of a nasty cut to his ear.

 

In the dying minutes the ball was passed wide to Bully on the left who set up a ruck, some quick recycling by the forwards saw the ball passed out to the backs on the right and Alastair trotted over the try line before casually grounding the ball one handed under the posts making the score 13-13. Knowing that the conversion was the last play Aaron duly converted making it 15-13 to Oaks and the final whistle was blown.

 

Team

Scott, Jonny, Al, Anael, Andrew, Aaron, Wardy, Matt, Poggles, Bob, George, Archer, Bully, Simon, Subs: Andy, Nick, Brian.

 

M.O.M – Scott for his safe hands at full back, lovely counter attacking runs and a well deserved try.

D.O.D – No real obvious contender so it was given to Bob for his dubious kicking.

Pudsey Bear Look-a-like – Johnny when he ‘nicked’ his ear.