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Northwich 14 Cleckheaton 26
Geoff Akerman21 Aug 2021 - 18:47
Cleckheaton power to impressive pre season victory.
Cleckheaton travelled to Northwich for a pre season game ahead of league activity resuming in 2 weeks time.
18 months ago all rugby was curtailed due to the coronavirus pandemic and these 2 teams would have met in a promotion playoff game had the season not ended early.
Northwich kicked off on a damp drizzly day which was to make handling difficult . The early part of the game was very evenly matched, Cleckheaton appeared to have the home team on the move in the scrum with front row of Andy Piper, Niall Jackson and Archie Rika Rayne dominant . The first scoring opportunity came after 10 minutes when Thiu Barnard failed to control the ball at a scrum and a knock on was awarded, he soon made up for the error when a from a driving maul he crashed over the line from short range, Dale Breakwell added the conversion 0-7 . On 20 minutes Northwich got over the tryline to level the scores. Tom Breakwell was shown the Yellow Card for an indiscretion at the ruck so Cleck were down to 14 men towards the end of the half. The visitors regrouped and took a deserved lead with try after a strong run by Matty Piper and Mike Hayward was on his shoulder to take the scoring pass under the posts for the try , converted by Dale Breakwell 7-14 at half time.
Early in the second half, with the Cleck pack driving forward, Thiu Barnard crossed for his 2nd try of the game, again converted by Dale Breakwell to take the score to 7-21.
The Cleckheaton forwards were giving their opponents a torrid time and Northwich made numerous handling errors when under pressure, this in turn gave the pacy back line chance to get into spaces, with Depledge , Hayward and Marshall running strongly. The next score came on the hour when James Wilson was on hand to crash over when the ball came loose after a fine break by Hayward . Conversion was pulled wide but the lead had stretched out to 7-26.
The home team had the final say in a good game when they crossed for a late try which was converted and the final score was Northwich 14 Cleckheaton 26.
This was a very good performance against a team from a higher division which shows how close Cleckheaton came to promotion some 520 days ago!
Next game will be against Huddersfield YMCA next Thursday at Moorend kick off 7.30pm. Come and give the Lambs your support, all welcome
18 months ago all rugby was curtailed due to the coronavirus pandemic and these 2 teams would have met in a promotion playoff game had the season not ended early.
Northwich kicked off on a damp drizzly day which was to make handling difficult . The early part of the game was very evenly matched, Cleckheaton appeared to have the home team on the move in the scrum with front row of Andy Piper, Niall Jackson and Archie Rika Rayne dominant . The first scoring opportunity came after 10 minutes when Thiu Barnard failed to control the ball at a scrum and a knock on was awarded, he soon made up for the error when a from a driving maul he crashed over the line from short range, Dale Breakwell added the conversion 0-7 . On 20 minutes Northwich got over the tryline to level the scores. Tom Breakwell was shown the Yellow Card for an indiscretion at the ruck so Cleck were down to 14 men towards the end of the half. The visitors regrouped and took a deserved lead with try after a strong run by Matty Piper and Mike Hayward was on his shoulder to take the scoring pass under the posts for the try , converted by Dale Breakwell 7-14 at half time.
Early in the second half, with the Cleck pack driving forward, Thiu Barnard crossed for his 2nd try of the game, again converted by Dale Breakwell to take the score to 7-21.
The Cleckheaton forwards were giving their opponents a torrid time and Northwich made numerous handling errors when under pressure, this in turn gave the pacy back line chance to get into spaces, with Depledge , Hayward and Marshall running strongly. The next score came on the hour when James Wilson was on hand to crash over when the ball came loose after a fine break by Hayward . Conversion was pulled wide but the lead had stretched out to 7-26.
The home team had the final say in a good game when they crossed for a late try which was converted and the final score was Northwich 14 Cleckheaton 26.
This was a very good performance against a team from a higher division which shows how close Cleckheaton came to promotion some 520 days ago!
Next game will be against Huddersfield YMCA next Thursday at Moorend kick off 7.30pm. Come and give the Lambs your support, all welcome
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