Painful return for Heath

Heath crashed out of the Yorkshire Shield on Saturday, losing 33-10 at Beverley's Beaver Park ground where they had gone down to a last minute try in Yorkshire One seven days earlier.
Heath v Beverley
Si Brown tryHeath v Beverley
Si Brown try
Heath v Beverley Si Brown try

They put in a very tame performance against rejuvenated hosts who ran rings around them.

Coach Dave Harrison tinkered with the line up so he could assess some of the players who had been performing well in the seconds.

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He left Jordan Bradbrook and Richard Brown on the bench and brought in Dave Skinner as flanker, moving captain Ian Downsborough to No 8. Chris Piper returned from injury at loose head prop.

Chris Moore withdrew on Saturday morning due to ‘flu so Olly Cook started at tight head.

Heath got off to a fine start with Seiffe Boussaada and Jason Merrie to the fore and opened the scoring on 14 minutes when Dowsborough broke free and sent a lopping pass to Si Brown, who went in at the corner for an unconverted try. From the re-start Downsborough sent Skinner on a 40 metre run. He was halted by a desperate tackle from a Beverley player who received a head injury and had to leave the field.

Ezra Hinchliffe found touch with a superb kick and the resulting line out set up another Heath attack but Beverley club on and gradually got into the game.

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On 25 minutes the hosts took a 7-5 lead with a converted try under the posts.

Heath responded with a couple of strong runs from replacement Ishmail Ali, supported by the hard working Alex McFadden and Matt Beasty.

It was fairly even as half time approached but Sam Pollard was sin-binned for a high tackle and Beverley took advantage with another converted try for a 14-5 interval lead.

Brown and Bradbrook came on as Harrison tried to get his side into gear but Beverley were finding spaces and beginning to exploit poor Heath defence.

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They scored a third converted try under the posts to lead 21-5 on 53 minutes.

Beverley camped in the Heath 22 and with Brown in the sin-bin for not binding in the scrum, the Beverley forwards were awarded a penalty try to increase their lead to 28-5.

Beverley were dominating the second half and a fifth try on 65 minutes, following clinical work from their backs, made it 33-5.

To Heath’s credit they kept working and scored a second unconverted try when Bradbrook ran to the corner,

Harrison’s men must now re-group ahead of league games against North Ribblesdale and Wheatley Hills, who sit in the bottom three of the league.

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