U14s - Sheffield Tigers Vs Barnsley

Sheffield Tigers 46 v Barnsley 7

With a large squad available for selection Barnsley U14’s travelled to the fringes of the Peak District on Sunday to take on Sheffield Tigers in Round One of the Yorkshire Cup. On a fine Autumnal day the large crowd were expecting a game of entertaining rugby to go with the sunshine and both teams played their part in delivering a spectacle for their fans.

Playing against the slope in the first half, Barnsley quickly found themselves under pressure and perhaps for the first time this season it was becoming evident to the forwards that they were not going to get everything their own way this morning without a lot of hard work. Sheffield’s early pressure began to pay dividends as they ran in 2 early tries which forced the Barnsley pack to take a long hard look at themselves as they had been slow to react in the early exchanges and had missed several crucial tackles which allowed Tigers to surge into an early lead.

One pleasing aspect of the early play however was the organisation of the backs who collectively had their best game of the season so far. It was a welcome return at scrum-half for Jack Yeardley which then freed up Josh Smith to move to inside centre. These two were ably supported and flanked by Michael Limb, Hamish Harrison and Aaron Westmoreland. At fly-half, Jacob Lawton produced a series of measured kicks to touch when under pressure to keep Barnsley in the game and from the resultant line-outs, thanks to the accurate throws of Fred Butcher, the jumping trio of Jordan Gray, Jordan Darwin and Kyle Holmes were able to take their share of the ball. Luke Townsend also took every opportunity to knock holes through the Tigers defensive line, with one attempt seeing him surge from the half way line to just short of his opponents try line.

Nonetheless, despite their ever improving efforts Barnsley went in at half-time trailing 22 v 0 following 2 further tries from the hosts. Half-time saw a couple of substitutions with Sam Owen coming on to replace Ben Thistlewood and Ash Powell replacing Sam Atkinson.

The second half began in much the same vain as the first had ended with the Barnsley forwards, although matching their counterparts, being unable to gain any real and sustained dominance despite the determined efforts of Jacob Bailey and co. Special mention must go to the effervescent Paul Kelly who covered an incredible amount of ground during the game at fullback and to Aaron Westmoreland and Joe Marsden whose warrior like tackling certainly embarrassed some of their larger teammates.

Midway through the second half Dylan Taylor replaced the injured Luke Townsend and Sam Owen found himself deep in conversation with the referee following his reluctance to accept a poke in the eye from his opponents; with the game moving to its conclusion and Barnsley still to trouble the scoreboard Jordan Darwin collected the ball deep in his own half and set off on a 40 yard run which spilt the Tigers defence before he offloaded the ball to Michael Limb who used his blistering pace to outflank his opponents and score in the corner. Jordan Gray added to the points total with the conversion to give a final score of Sheffield Tigers 46 v Barnsley 7.

Despite the scoreline, overall it was a much more measured and organised performance from Barnsley against stern opposition.

Man of the Match awards went to Kyle Holmes for the forwards and Jack Yeardley for the backs.