Pontefract V Thornesians

Pontefract V Thornesians
Pontefract were back after a week off for most of the first team after their hard worked victory away the week before at Wetherby. With Stringer unavailable due to injury there was room for Tad Nyanjowa to make his first team debut.
Pontefract kicked off the first half to Thorne on the glorious Saturday afternoon. Pontefract were up and in the face of Thorne who after taking the kick used slow ball with the forwards to attempt to make space for their backs, in doing so Pontefract prop Anesh Chaba twisted his knee and was stretchered off 2 minutes into the game, giving James Griffin a chance to get near enough 80 mins under his belt. From the resulting scrum, Pontefract showed their dominance in the scrum and won a penalty from a handling error at the back. The ball was kicked for a lineout , from the resulting line the ball to the back, Callum Watts fed no.10 Glen Boyd who passed the ball to Ross Shand who ran a great line breaking the Thorne defence and all he had to do was to off load to Captain Craig Fawcett who outpaced the winger to add another try to his growing record this season. Ian Mattison confirmed the 7 points with a pin point conversion.
Ponte were on the fornt foot now in the first 10 minutes and continued pressure from the Ponte forward with Strong running from Hill, Lane and Beddis brought plenty of yards. Thorne won back the ball from a strong rukcing manoeuvre, but a few minutes later debutant Tad Nyanjowa stole the ball and made a break for the line with support from John Fradgley, Nyanjowa was brought down before the line and resulted in Thorne winning back possession. It wasn’t long again until Ponte had the ball back, and from the back of a dominant scrum, the backs put on a series of moves making great yards. A kick behind the defence of Thorne and a great chase from Ponte chasing pack resulted in Fawcett tackling the full back 1 metre out, and from great rucking voer from John Fradgley the ball popped out for the easiest try for debutant Tad Nyanjowa to pick and place the ball over the line. Again Mattison completing the conversion making the score 14-0 after 15 minutes.
From the ensuing kick off Thornesians came back at Pontefract again with the forwards with some strong running , but Pontefracts defence was able to hold out the sustained pressure before turning over the ball once again, for the ball to be shipped out to Bacon who then tipped on the Hill to make a break from the 5 m line, to be caught near the half way. The resulting lineout from Thornesians wss given not straight and from the scrum Pontefract backs were able to put on a fine attacking move with Shand slicing through the Throne defence for Bacon to run in for his 7th try of the season.
At the second half started much the way of the first half, scrappy defence from both teams with Thorne using their pack to try to move across the gain line. Scrappy play lead to Pontefract picking up the ball just inside the opposition half for Sant to pass the ball the Beddis to power through the defence, out pace the winger and step the full back to score a great solo effort with Mattison again kicking the points.
This seemed to rejuvenate the Pontefract pack and focused on structure which produced the best play of the second half from the forwards to let the backs attack the Thorne line. Ponte were able to put enough pressure on Throne to get a penalty which was kicked 5 m out. From a great line out, the Ponte pack were able to get the shove on and moved towards the Thorne line, the maul was seemed to be pulled down and Ponte were awarded a Penalty try, even if Hargreaves claimed to have got it down.
All in all quite a scrappy game played by both teams on Saturday, plenty to work on in training, highlighs for the forwards is the tackling from Phil Lane, Jack Beddis and Chris Sant. The set piece from forwards and backs were particualry good this weekend.
The first team are away to Wath next week, lets hope for another win and a strong week training