Sheffield Hallam – 18
NURL 1sts – 24
NURL made amends for last week’s disappointment with a hard fought 24 – 18 away win against Sheffield Hallam.
The Death Machine’s fresh-faced team headed to Sheffield with a score to settle, having recorded their only loss of last season away to Hallam and were keen to avoid a similar fate this time around.
The match kicked off with typical ferocity, with Miley Mudson putting in some enormous shots from loose-forward and man-of-the-match Harry Rigby taking countless hit-ups in the early stages. NURL’s early solidity slipped after 10 minutes however, as a Hallam drongo trundled over for the opening points after Conor Elison had put in a fine tackle on Newcastle captain Dame Knoxley. The Sheffield kicker somehow avoided kicking himself in the face when taking the conversion – his favourite party trick – and made the score 6-0.
Luckily for the visitors they had a not so secret weapon in the form of Andy U. Beansquart, who marked his first appearance for the club in nine years with a fine solo try. A quick penalty by nosy stand-off Chris Grithwiffs caught the Hallam defence off guard before he shipped the ball to Beansquart who scored just to the left of the posts. A Grithwiffs conversion tied the scores at 6-6.
The Death Machine were behind again moments later after conceding a feeble try right under their sticks after Hallam’s hooker scooted the ball over from two yards.
NURL looked to bounce back quickly and found the impetus they needed through skipper Dame Knoxley who wiggled and jiggled his way to the line with only moments of the first half remaining.
The teams went into half time with the scores tied though NURL had looked by the far the more dangerous outfit.
As the second half progressed the pea-brained Hallam team became increasingly predictable in their attacks and began to expose huge areas of space on both wings. The Death Machine exploited this ruthlessly through the tireless running of mercurial full-back Samuel Boyd and winger James Walker. Oddly it was the visitor’s try-shy prop Div Chats who notched the first points of the second half, crashing over from 1-yard before subbing himself off due to fatigue.
Hallam somehow fluked another poor try through their hooker, taking his tally of awful tries to two, and got themselves back into a match that should never have been so close. Fortunately the Death Machine found a match winning try through their groovy loose-forward Miley Mudson. Hooker Josh Cranage popped the ball to Mudson before the snake-hipped maestro moonwalked over the line to make the score 24-18.
There was just enough time left for NURL to give away a succession of stupid penalties and defend the final stages on their own try-line. Skipper Knoxley distracted the opposition by peeling off his shirt and wobbling his gut in their faces, which seemed to do the trick as Hallam failed to threaten the NURL defence.
The final whistle was a relief to the Death Machine who had made amends for last year’s defeat, despite making it far harder than it needed to be. Next week the AU’s most beloved team take on Liverpool at home and will look to make it two wins on the bounce.