Lead was almost squandered away
Moorends-Thorne Marauders 25 Lincoln City Knights 20
MOORENDS turned round at half-time coasting 20-6 against a below strength Knights outfit and an 11-6 penalty count in favour of the Knights; this possession was equalised out with a 9-7 scrum count in the Marauders favour.
The game was never allowed to break into a classic, or even the usual free-flowing game that is normally served up by these two teams; the usual first quarter arm-wrestle appeared, as always expected, when these two teams meet.
It was broken after a short period of pressure deep inside the Knights half of the field, after Moorends were awarded a penalty for a head high tackle, from the resulting penalty the strong running Gareth Everton powered over scattering defenders in his way for the first score of the game.
The game continued to chug along error filled and whistle happy, a big hit from Gav Millward and Jason Blanchard forced the ball free, Mark Roach scooped it up and with Alex Palmer supporting and the line begging, the referee brought him back to award the Marauders a scrum instead of the advantage, justice was served up when from the scrum Roach dummied through the first line of defenders and won the foot race into the corner for a 28th minute unconverted try.
The Marauders had the upper hand and were soon back deep inside the Knights territory, pounding their try line, which was being kept safe with some excellent defence. It took the pace and power of Wayne Green to open the door when he had re-appeared after breaking his nose in the 5th minute, Green went from acting half 10-metres out on the last tackle, crashing over with two defenders hanging on to him, this time Ryan Rafferty converted from the touch line.
Lincoln dominated the next five minutes and this resulted in a try from Johnny Ledger.
The Marauders defence looked solid, but Ledger took full advantage when the Marauders had three men in the previous tackle and a Lincoln player came in and tackled Ryan Rafferty off the tackled player, Rafferty protested to the referee's deaf ear and Ledger shot from half back to score and convert the try.
Moorends came back with the ideal reply to the protested try, when excellent footwork and passing saw the Marauders go deep into the Knights territory, quick hands to the right saw Mark Roach drop the ball off to Shaun Carver, who crashed through and over the top of three would-be tacklers, Ryan Rafferty converted for 20-6 at half-time.
Wayne Green added a 45-minute drop goal for the Marauders before the Knights kicked into gear catching the home side dozing, Meehal Grint went over after 55 minutes from a lovely angled run going over in the corner.
John Turner's powerful running found a chink in the Moorends armour going over the top of a would-be tackler for the next Knights try on 68 minutes.
The Marauders by now had started to look down the barrel of a shot gun when Graham Cass brought desperate times to the Marauders. Gareth Evans drew the Marauders defence deep inside his own half before releasing Cass on a long race, which he won to go in under the posts, the try was converted by Gareth Evans on 74 minutes to set up a last 16 minutes dominated by the visitors, who were unlucky when they had a try disallowed with three minutes to go that looked perfectly ok.
Moorends kicked into gear themselves in the last couple of minutes when a completed set of six saw the kick deflected into the path of Tom Brandham, who’s quick hands found Ryan Rafferty, Rafferty drew the last of the Knights defence before sending Mark Roach in under the posts, Ryan Rafferty missed the easy kick to sum up the Marauders poor performance.
This weekend the merit team are away at South Humber Rabbitohs (Grimsby), coach leaves at 12.30pm from Moorends Social Club. A win in this game will see the Marauders with a home fixture in the merit league play-offs.
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Weather for Thorne
Tuesday 18 June 2013
Today
Light showers
Temperature: 12 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: West
