Thornensians turn on the style to shock Wath

Thornensians turned the Yorkshire Division Two formbook upside down when beating Wath Upon Dearne 50-36 at Coulman Road, writes Steve Hossack.
Thornensians' Adan SmithThornensians' Adan Smith
Thornensians' Adan Smith

Wath went into the game boasting four wins from their last five games and having beaten leaders Pontefract the previous week.

In stark contrast, Thornensians had lost four of their five games but on the day run out deserved winners.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

They produced a scintillating display of attacking rugby which left the visitors, who scored 12 of their points in stoppage time when Thorne were down to 13 men, shell-shocked.

Thornensians scored seven tries, four in the first half, three in the second.

Left wing Rob Brown converted six plus a penalty to finish with a tally of 15 points on his return from a lengthy injury.

Thornensians led 29-19 at half time courtesy of well-worked team tries scored by centre Luke Marsden, second-row Rob Raper, prop Adan Smith and full-back Zak Holgate.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Wath stuck stubbornly to their task scoring three tries, two of which were converted.

Wath opened up second half proceedings with an unconverted try against the run of play to close the deficit to five points but that was as good as it got for the visitors.

Thornensians controlled possession and territory, adding a further three tries from fly-half Tom Holt, man-of-the-match Smith and No 8 Aaron Holt.

Thornensians, 12th in the table, return to league action on November 25 at Barnsley. On the same day Wath host Old Grovians.

Related topics: