Eastmoor Dragons 15 Thatto Heath Crusaders 22 Heath put on an outstanding defensive performance to clinch the two points against bottom of the table Eastmoor Dragons in Wakefield on Saturday. Heath began like a house on fire with winger Mark Hayton crossing after only two minutes, collecting his own grubber on the powerplay to ground out wide.
Two Darren Mitchell tries followed in the opening quarter, the first from a tap penalty in his own half from which he ran through a bemused Dragons defence before rounding the full back to score under the sticks. His second came from acting half as he used his pace to plant the ball beneath the posts.
Andy Benson landed both conversions and with only Craig Miles drop goal in reply you would be excused for thinking Heath where in for an easy afternoon. But on the 20 minute mark a converted try by Eastmoor full back Miles kept the Yorkshire side in the game.
The only other scores in the first half went to Benson and Miles as they exchanged penalties to make it 18 - 9 to Heath.
After 25 minutes of the second half the rejuvenated Dragons had applied a lot of pressure for long periods since the break. Only determined defence by all thirteen Heath players kept the home side at bay.
But with only 15 minutes left Miles crossed for his second try and landed the conversion to narrow the gap to three points.
With the possibility of a shock on the cards the Wakefield side came at Heath with a vengeance and again the visitors were not found wanting.
With only two minutes left Thatto loose forward Gary Welsby broke the Dragons' hearts with a superb try out wide. It came from a sequence of ten passes,creating an overlap on the right, for Gary to use to step inside his marker and clinch the game for Heath.
Men of the Match: Forwards ; Darren Mitchell. Backs; Jamie Hill. Heath are at home to Rochdale Mayfield on Saturday, kick off 2:30.
Hindpool 8 Thatto Heath U18s 30 Thatto Heath travelled to Hindpool in Barrow for this match and won convincingly. Hindpool, who lost two men during the course of the match to yellow cards, never looked like scoring a try.
Heath scored 30 points on a narrow pitch with tries from J Hughes, P Fitzhenry, W Haselden, T Critchley, P Sexton and W Rosney along with three conversion from P Fitzhenry washed away Hindpool giving Thatto their second win in a row.
The man of the match award went to second row J Burrows.
Thatto Heath U15s 24 Haydock 6 Crusaders won a hard fought match against a battling Haydock. First half tries from Smith and Warburton gave Crusaders a 10-0 interval lead. Despite several key players receiving injuries, Crusaders forged further ahead with tries from Kenyon, Fletcher and Cunliffe with Quinn converting one.
Ashton U12s 6 Thatto Heath 22 Crusaders got back to winning ways with this excellent overall team display. Their strong defence proved to be the platform for this well deserved victory. Tries came from Barton, Watts and Wellens with Forber kicking three goals. Maxwell won both the man of the match and top tackler awards.
Thatto Heath U11s 16 Ashton 26 Crusaders performed well with tries from man of the match Scott Clark (2) and Stephen Thomas and conversions from Daniel Bacon and Scott Clark. Top tackler was Colin Malone, coaches award went to Ben Parr and most improved was Joe Tatlock. The under 11s would like to thank North West Express for sponsoring their new kit.
Thatto Heath U/10s 12 Leigh East 22 This was a good display of rugby in the first game of the season for the under 10s who all played extremely well. They went in only 12-6 at half time but Leigh East proved too strong in the second half.
Tries came from Brad Murray and Thomas Marren with conversions from Thomas Marren and Jamie Ryan. Man of the match was Thomas Marren, coaches award went to Matthew Scott, most improved was Tony Houghton and top tackler was Brad Murray.
Waterhead U8s 30 Thatto Heath 30 In this exciting game, tries came from Lewis Foster (3), Ben Etchells and Shaun Kenny with conversions from Ben Etchells, Ben Tatlock, Lewis Foster, Jarrod Kenny and Tony Thomas.
Man of the match was shared between Ben Tatlock and Ben Etchells, top tackler was Shaun Kenny, coaches award went to Dominic Riley and most improved was Mark Kelly.
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