U15s - Malton and Norton Vs Barnsley

CLECKHEATON U15’s 10 V BARNSLEY U15’s 29

Barnsley U15’s had to re-arrange their scheduled trip to Sandal after the West Yorkshire side cancelled, and Cleckheaton duly provided the Shaw Lane outfit with a testing game.
Barnsley traveled with a massive squad of 28 but it was Cleckheaton who came out of the starting blocks first and enjoyed a productive opening five minutes. The home side moved the ball wide at pace and scored a well worked try in the corner.

This early set back appeared to wake up Barnsley who had scored 117 points without reply in their previous two games. It certainly fired up fly half Josh Lewis who picked the ball up on the half way, pinned his ears back and sprinted past the entire defence to score under the posts. Dominic Barrow had no trouble with the conversion, unlike the assistant coach who needs to improve his technique on throwing the kicking tee.

Captain Dominic Barrow, on his return from South Yorkshire duty, then showed his typical ‘lead from the front style’ by scoring the side’s second try. He broke through the Cleckheaton forwards and found space in the opposition 22 with only the full back to beat. After a neat side-step he managed to power over the line for a deserved try.
Josh Lewis then proved his first try was no fluke by running his second in from 60 metres. He used a clever dip of the shoulders to fly past the opposition centre and then out sprint the Cleckheaton defenders. Barrow again added the conversion.

The home side to their credit did not let their heads drop and scored a second try when their number eight picked up from the base of a scrum and drove his way over.

The move preceding Barnsley’s fourth try had the traveling supporters on their feet in admiration. It started 15 metres inside the Barnsley half with some superb handling by both forwards and backs. The ball passed through 8 pairs of hands before the Shaw Lane side were stopped just 2 metres from the line. From the resulting scrum Blake Marsland-Gray picked the ball up and smashed his way through the Cleckheaton defence to score in the corner.

Man of the Match ‘Blakey’ also had the last word as he took the ball at pace, and scored his second try wide out.
Special mention must go to debutant Sam King who had a solid first game at centre, and thanks go to Jamie Todd , Max Brook and Aiden Tallant who volunteered to play for the opposition due to a shortage of players.