By Ian Golden
Midlands Hurricanes dominated the second half at Avery Fields on Sunday to earn themselves a well-deserved win.
The home side dominated due to their imagination in attack, style of play and excellent defence. Whilst the first half was fairly even, the visitors just weren’t in the game at all after the break, Midlands even reversing the penalty count, which was 6-2 in favour of Batley after 40 minutes.
Midlands opened the score on eight minutes in a try that came out of nothing. Batley were awarded a penalty on Midlands’ 10 metre line. They chose to run the ball but dropped it on the second tackle. Matty Chrimes collected and sprinted nearly 100 metres to score. Lewis Else couldn’t convert. Chrimes was on fire and nearly scored a second with another weaving run, but this time the Bulldogs defence were up to the task.
Batley scored a try back on 16 minutes. Their score would have been a minute earlier, had it not been for Tom Wilkinson’s outstanding tackle on Derrell Olpherts that sent the winger flying into touch. However, there was a dropped ball following the resulting scrum, and two tackles later, Joshua Woods dived under the sticks for Batley’s opener and Ben Reynolds converted.
Then, on the half-hour, Chrimes did it again. This time it was after Batley failed to score from a set of six given on Midlands’ ten metre line. Ryan Johnson made a cruncher of a tackle on Reynolds, forcing him to drop the ball. Chrimes collected and again, no-one could stop him. Sully Medforth stepped up to take over on kicking duty and converted.
And with defences on top, especially Midlands given the penalty count, and the hits continuing to go in hard, both bruised sets of players went into half-time knowing they produced 40 minutes of pure entertainment, with the score at 10-6.
Midlands scored their first try of the half on 51 minutes. After winning a six-again and two penalties, all within ten metres from goal, Midlands had to break the Batley defence, and finally they did, as Brandon Moore forced his way under the sticks and Medforth converted.
They followed this up with an outstanding score. Sully Medforth chipped the ball over the Batley line on only the second tackle of a set. Todd Horner raced onto the ball and scored under the posts. Medforth added the goal, then a long-range penalty five minutes later, to put the score on to 24-6 and out of Batley’s reach.
Midlands continued to outplay their opponents. Even when they dropped the ball from kick-off, another crunching tackle forced them to lose possession when in a good scoring position. Back they went upfield and scored try number five as Medforth, who had an outstanding game, leapt onto his own grubber that was batted back by Matty Chrimes to score in the corner, then brilliantly converted it.
The Midlands’ second-half copybook was only blotted with a minute to go. After giving away a penalty for obstruction, Dane Manning ran in a consolation try. Reynolds kicked the goal as the final hooter blew.
Man of the Match:
Ryan Johnson (Sponsored by Hull Wyke Rugby League)
Tries:
Chrimes (2), Moore, Horner and Medforth
Conversions:
Medforth (4/4), Else (0/1)
Penalties:
Medforth (1/1)
Attendance:
476
