A Christmas cracker
By Gelbel
December 28 2015
I love a dogged Yorkshire derby - all grit and determination, grunting and handbags, low scoring and, usually, nail biting. This was none of that but it was a fine display of power from the Yorkshire Carnegie pack, supported by accurate kicking and good defending.
Rotherham started the opening minutes of the match on the front foot and went ahead with an early penalty. This was soon cancelled out from the first catch and drive from Yorkshire Carnegie with Bainbridge at the bottom of the pile when Sir blew his whistle for the try. 7-3 after the conversion. It soon became 10-3 as Rotherham were caught offside and Sinfield took the points on offer. The gap was narrowed following period of possession from Rotherham which saw them awarded a penalty. 10-6 after 20 minutes.
Then things changed and Yorkshire Carnegie became dominant, the backs linked up and Prell was deemed to be illegally stopped. Rather than take the points, the ball was kicked to the corner. The resulting maul didn’t work at first – it rocked a bit, it went backwards a bit, it went sideways a bit then it went in the right direction with Bainbridge getting his second try which was converted. A big boo went up as the try was scored 20 seconds after the 5 minutes Satsuma segment ended. 17-6.
Again the backs had a little go but the ball was stolen and Sinfield kicked to the corner again. This time the maul went route one and Bainbridge got his hat-trick. Sinfield added the conversion to make it 24-6 just before half time.
The ref wasn’t overly noticeable but he was chopping and changing his mind – blowing up for one thing then signalling a different misdemeanour and Rotherham could have felt to be hard done by. So to even things up a bit Sir decided to miss a massive bit of crossing (not from my legs from too much pre-match beer) and decided to bin Bainbridge. The penalty was successful, making it 24-9 at half time.
Imiolek was on for Beech – who we were post-match told had popped a rib quite early on. There was a strong start to the second half from Rotherham until they knocked on. Bainbridge came back from his extended break and within minutes scored again from a series of penalties that Yorkshire Carnegie were awarded. The conversion bounced off the post so it was 29-9.
The last quarter or so saw some huge hits going in from Yorkshire Carnegie. One in particular saw Sinfield chasing and tracking the ball to put in massive tackle on the Rotherham player who caught it. In some way it made up for a charge down from a kick which had taken place in our 22. However our defence held strong and Yorkshire Carnegie were attacking again.
The changes started to take place – Forsyth and Smith for Lucock, who was doing his best Shrek impression with green chalk all over his face, and Myerscough. This was shortly followed by Hooper for O’Donnell.
Yorkshire Carnegie snaffled a lineout from Rotherham and in the resulting bit of play, Rotherham had a player binned. There was a long break so an injured Rotherham player could receive treatment – nice one Sir for spotting this the second it happened and stopping play. But being a hard rugby type, the player was able to walk off. During that break Hodgson came on for Pilgrim and Saull for Beck – who continues to impress, he had his best performance since his long layoff.
I must admit, I like Hodgson – yet again he was a live wire and nearly scored. The ball went up and down the try line a couple of times and eventually Hooper scooped it up and powered over. Sinfield converted to make the score 36-9. Nilsen, with massive egg on his forehead, was replaced by debutee Jordan Poole.
Rotherham attacked and I made a note that Yorkshire Carnegie came away with the ball every time Rotherham got in our 22. And with that we did; with this one being best of the lot – an intercept from Forsyth saw him run the length of the pitch for the sixth try of the day that gave Sinfield his easiest conversion of the day. 43-9. There was little time left for a final try to take the score to the magic 50 mark but Yorkshire Carnegie tried.
So all on all, a Christmas cracker of a game with a dominant display from the forwards who pushed aside a lack lustre Rotherham performance. Yorkshire Carnegie gave a ruthless display right to the end and there was none of the usual taking the foot off the gas once they had the upper hand – and they need to do this every match.
People are complaining that the rolling maul is boring and that the backs are poor – quite frankly, it’s a case of you can’t please all the people all the time. The backs did attack; 9 times out of 10 they ran into traffic, they defended and tackled well. There was less hoofing of the ball than we’ve seen of late too. Sinfield had his best game, his kicking for position was spot on, Leonard made some good yardage and big hits, they both made a few mistakes, the back three had their chances.
And to be frank I don’t give a monkey’s – a win’s a win, a big win is a big win, a stuffing of our local rivals is blooming marvellous. Champagne rugby? Not for me – I’d rather have red wine and everyone knows the heathy benefits that gives.
Cheers everyone, Happy New Year and see some of you at Ealing.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016:01:03:14:02:04 by Gelbel.
Did the pack collude with Satuma & delay the try for 20 seconds to save them some money?
- Satsumagate|
To add to the Satsumagate controversy, it seemed more than co-incidence that the 5 minutes started when we were about one metre from our own try line - to minimise the chance of a payout, I wonder?
Really pleased that we have got back in the winning habit. A fantastic late Cheistmas present.
That's one of our local rivals put away for this season, can we manage a win (of any sort) against Donny next month.........?
On yesterdays exhibition, I suggest we can. It would be really good to manage a win at Castle Park, it's been a long long time since we did.
Up the Yorkshire Carnegie TYKES !
sent off carried off never backed off