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Sheffield Tigers RUFC
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(Established 1932)
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A National Three Midlands Club
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Reports 2010-2011:
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28/08/10 - Tigers 1st XV Powerful Display in Final Pre-season Match
Sheffield Tigers 46 - Scunthorpe 14
Scunthorpe started strongly recycling the ball well. The visitors were helped by the home sides desire to open out at every opportunity, unfortunately at the expense of spilling the ball. Play settled down after a quarter of an hour when Scunthorpe conceded a penalty near halfway and new young stand-off Joe Wright kicked the ball to touch in the Scunthorpe twentytwo. The resultant catch and drive was well defended but at the expense of another penalty. Tigers opted for a scrum and the pack powered over for number eight Brandon Hannam to score an unconverted try. Four minutes later Tigers scored again after an excellent passing move, not by the backs but by the forwards. Andy Barnes made a strong run from halfway before passing to supporting Hannam who again made yardage before offloading to player coach Gregor Hayter. When he was stopped just short of the try line the ball was quickly recycled and full-back John Feeley scored. Wright converted for 12-0. Tigers were now controlling the game with strong drives and good recycling. When play broke down outside the Scunthorpe twentytwo Feeley saw a gap blindside and raced through for his second try to increase the lead to 17-0. Tigers were now starting to overwhelm Scunthorpe. An attack by the forwards on the right on thirtytwo minutes saw good ball spun left for winger Marcus Cambridge to score in the corner. Four minutes later another ruck enabled Hayter to stroll in unopposed on the blind side and Wright converted for 29-0. Only two minutes later centre John Buchanan made a strong run in centre field. When the ball went loose Feeley was on hand to pick up, superbly side step a defender and race in for his hat trick try. Half time score 34-0.
Scunthorpe now had use of the strengthening wind and made it count soon after kick-off when poor Tigers defence at a ruck let a visiting player run in from twenty metres unopposed. The conversion made it 34-7. Tigers struck back straight away. New scrum-half Matt Hargreaves made a break from halfway. Buchanan continued the move and Feeley finished for 39-7 after just five minutes of the second half. Tigers then seemed to relax and this enabled Scunthorpe to fight back. Mistakes such as forward passes and spilt ball gave Scunthorpe the chance to enjoy some possession and their best twenty minutes of the match. However, this was brought to an abrupt end on sixtyfive minutes when Feeley entered a passing move at pace. He raced clear before delivering a perfect inside pass to centre Owen Evans. He cleverly wrong footed the full-back to score. Wright again converted for 46-7. Two players on each side were then shown yellow cards, at two separate “disagreements”, and several substitutes used, both which served to disrupt any remaining pattern to the play. Credit to the visitors for never giving up and with two minutes left they created an overlap for their stand-off to make an outside break to set up a front five forward to score a converted try for a final score of 46-14.
This was a much better performance than the one last week against Pontefract and not just because the team won! The two lapses apart, defence was stronger, especially the midfield with both centres and stand-off Wright tackling well. The front row was dominant, with new prop Anthony Ross looking a good player, and the line-out secure, with Richard Joel as reliable as ever but also Barnes and Hayter adding options. Overall the pack looked very powerful in both the tight and open play with hooker Ali Thompson and back row Nav Sandhu and Hannam adding mobility. The young half-backs worked well to distribute the ball and control the pattern of play and the backs showed a desire to play open rugby. Alignment of the three quarters was better than in any game last season and in Feeley at full-back the team now possess a pacy and sharp cutting edge. The side have a good blend of youth and experience and with several players still to return things look positive. Indeed, it looks like there will be a lot of competition for places. Finally, the most impressive thing about the match was that the side seem to have learnt the lesson from last week that if you give away penalties for offences (at the ruck especially) you do not win matches. This was evident in the side only conceding three penalties in the first half hour today and it went a long way to helping the forwards dominate the match and the backs score tries from that pressure.
Team - Bunting, Thompson, Ross, Hayter, Joel, Barnes, Sandhu, Hannam, Hargreaves (Scheinkonig), Wright, Cambridge, Buchanan, Evans, Morley (McKenzie), Feeley
Replacements – All used
Referee – Dean Walker
Report – Nigel Dakin
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21/08/10 - Tigers 1st XV Lose Out to Pontefract in First Pre-season Match
Sheffield Tigers 17 - Pontefract 21
Tigers scored 3 tries to 1 in the first half to go to the break 17 - 7 up. Pontefract backs scored 2 converted tries in the second half to win the match 21 - 17.
Team – Team: Bunting (Lidster), Thomson (Whitworth), Ross, Hayter, Joel, Hannam, Rodgers, Wragg, Hargreaves, Wright, Morley, Evans, Cambridge, Clark, Feeley (Bastock)
Replacements – All used
Referee – Andy Baker
Report –
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