Siddal 42 vs 16 Heworth. NCL Premier Division round 10. Saturday 6.6.26

In the NCRL Premier Division, Heworth suffered a loss away to Siddal, going down 42-16 despite some periods of valiant effort during the game.

Siddal, sitting mid-table and with a strong pedigree at the top of the amateur game, welcomed the visitors on a fresh day looking out across the Halifax hillside.

The home-teams strength and experience showed from kick-off, with tries from Grierson, Tait, Milnes and Walsh (2 converted by Williams) giving the home team 20 points in 27 minutes, a lead which Heworth were left chasing and couldn’t close. At times even the bounce of the rugby ball seemed to be against the Villagers, with the third Siddal try coming via a very dubious obstruction play which had both teams standing watching for a ref whistle which didn’t come.

As the sunshine made a very welcome appearance, Heworth centre Harrison Briggs intercepted a ball as the home team attacked, resulting in a nice set from Heworth, some very handy work from half-back Dan Clarke and a score right in the corner for winger Zach Towse on 33 minutes. No conversion left the score 20 points to 4 and despite some good possession, a Heworth penalty for a high tackle on Towse and some great attacking in the left corner, a forward pass denied Heworth to try that they deserved.

The first half ended with Siddal clearly the stronger and more experienced side but Heworth really dug in for the last 15 minutes, enjoyed some possession and the game looked somewhat more balanced.

The second half kicked off off on time with the visitors facing into the sunshine and kicking to the Siddal team, who made it all the way up to the Heworth end but were contained and Heworth took a kick from under the posts.

Despite the efforts of Heworth left edge defence, Siddle’s attack proved too much with two more tried coming on 43 and 47 mins, by way of Siddal’s Henry Turner and Jamie Greenwood. With one conversion from the two attempts, the scoreline stood at 30-4.

What followed was Heworth’s best period and when a deft kick from Dan Clarke from central field was collected all the way across in the right-hand corner by Zach Towse, the winger posted both his own and Heworth’s second score. Jack Sadler converted beautifully to take the score to 30 points to 10. Heworth continued with some renewed vigour and when a tap-twenty from Tino Mulase put Heworth up to the 40 meter line, the following set resulted in another well timed kick from half back Dan Clarke into space on the right hand side, once again collected by winger Towse who ran in for his hat-trick. Another conversion by Sadler took the score to 30 points to 16.

Despite some entertaining battles in the middle of the field, the home team had easily amassed an unassailable lead and two quick final tries from Milnes and Holmes somewhat massaged a scoreline.

The final conversion at the whistle took the scoreline to 42 points to 16, a very experienced Siddal side with a great attack selection showing their class across the full 80 minutes.

Our young Heworth team should be proud of their efforts and some good spells during the game and now look forward to welcoming table-topping West Hull to Elmpark Way next Saturday.

 Match report-Steve Towse