Hollismen give a good account of themselves against league leaders
Hornsea RUFC 5 Halifax RUFC 22
In front of a large crowd on a bright autumnal afternoon the Hollismen entertained the league leaders Halifax in an imposing looking fixture against a town ten times the size of Hornsea.
Hornsea started the game brightly and for the opening 10 minutes they had the territorial advantage and the majority of the possession, but when camped in their opponent’s twenty two they were unable to break through the Halifax well marshalled defence.
Against the fun of play, Halifax opened the scoring after 12 minutes when they were able to gain the ball, work downfield and spin the ball wide to score in the corner.
An even affair for the next ten or twelve minutes with defences on top saw the score stay unchanged but after a Halifax infringement 30 yards out, Will Marshall was unlucky with his penalty attempt to get the black and greens on the scoreboard.
On the half hour mark, Halifax had another rare flurry into the Hornsea twenty two but again scored following a speculative kick, which seemed to be the difference in the two teams, scoring when in the danger zone.
Half Time Hornsea 0 Halifax 10
Halifax showed their strength from the 2nd half kick off and scored within 3 minutes of the restart when their pack got the momentum and drove over the line from close out, the try was converted to take their advantage to 17:0.
Hornsea continued to threaten with ball in hand, and following a powerful run by man of the match Dan Cook, the resultant next few phase saw the Hollismen pack inch towards the line before Ohil Walker picked up from the back of a ruck to score.
Halifax’s persistent high tackling was penalised with a yellow card but they were able to hold form for the remainder of the match and again scored in the dying minutes when Hornsea were trying all they could to go forward.
Although a home defeat, the faithful crowd were impressed with the gallant efforts of the home side against the highly resourced league leaders.
Captain Ed Webster, although disappointed with defeat, was impressed by his men, and said, “ Well done today lads, hard defeat to take given they were touted as league winners but they’ll be surprised at the game “little” old Hornsea gave them. We go again next week, as we know we’ll need to be ready as we travel to our oldest rivals Hessle”.