News
Sheffield Hallam 16 CUARLFC 16
After a break of 6 weeks without a match it was good for the player’s to get eighty minutes under the belt beginning a cycle of two games a week from the end of january.Sheffield Hallam were unbeaten this season and were the team to measure the improvement the club had made over the first part of the season.The blues gave debut’s to Frank Sanders and Patrick Crossley in the front row and it was identified that travelling the long journey up to sheffield would require size and power in the middle of the field to match their hit up forwards.Hallam had plenty of league nouse and pedigree and in the pivotal positions of hooker , stand off and scrum half they had players who could direct the traffic.
The match kicked off and the blues set the standard for the remainder of the match with some punishing defence coupled with strong running at the ruck.Set completion and territory were the watchwords on a small , compact ground and the players set about their task with enthusiasm and no small amount of skill.The first try came from a crossfield bomb which Alex Spain launched himself at under all kinds of pressure to dot the ball down to the left of the posts.Converted gave a lead of 6-0 and with both sides then trading sets for the next 20 minutes it was hallam who scored in the corner to apply pressure on the cambridge team.This was never going to be a score fest and the attritional work from the cambridge big men was taking juice out of the hallam forwards.After conceding a scrum 20m’s off the cambridge line , full back Rob Cox spotted the two pass spread and intercepted with 60m’s to go. Passing to wing Charlie Linton he then stayed alive for the return pass and scored to the left of the posts which arrested any momentum that was gathering from the yorkshiremen.
Half time arrived with a scoreline of Sheffield Hallam 4 CUARLFC 10.The talk at half time was to keep things going in the same vein and not to change too much from what we had done in the first half.
The second half was started the stronger by hallam and they scored within the first five minutes under the posts which converted levelled the scores and now we would be able to see who could stand up to the pressure that would come from a now resurgent hallam team.The blues showed that they were more than a match for hallam and started to cut holes in and around the ruck which gave up easy metres but the final execution was not always at it’s best and allowed hallam to mount attacks in the cambridge half.10 minutes from time The Shearmanator took the ball 15m’s from the line and with three defenders hanging off him dotted the ball down on the line and converted gave a converted try difference.It would be nip and tuck to see if they could hold on but hallam showed great determination and after back to back sets something had to give and they scored at the side of the posts.The scores now locked and with 3 minutes to go cambridge had to play smart and try and get into position for the drop goal but when that attempt sailed wide the ref blew up for time on what was a good game of rugby league.
Final Score. Sheffield Hallam 16 CUARLFC 16
Coach Evans was happy with the performance , “Winning matches are great but for me it was all about performance and attitude.Travelling three and a half hours to a game knowing it is going to be a tough assignment can work on players’ minds but this team showed they are mentally and physically tough.Hallam weren’t shrinking violets when it came to getting stuck in and for some of our players it was an eye opener but we gave as good as we got in that department and whilst the lads were disappointed in only coming away with a draw it was telling to see the reaction of the hallam players that they were pig sick at only getting a draw with cambridge.We have a league culture down here and players are getting better by the week in playing matches like this in the heartland of the sport.We had 10 players not available this week but i’m sure with a home game next week against Sheffield Uni there will be many lads knocking at the door to get a crack at them.“
Scorers.
Trys: Spain , Cox and Shearman.
Cons.Sykes (2)