Brods show staying power in fine win

Tries in the last 20 minutes from scrum half Dom Georgiou and replacement forward Luke Scrimshaw ensured that the Hippeholme men stay fifth in Yorkshire One at the half-way stage of their league programme.

Brid left Calderdale disappointed for the second successive Saturday, having suffered a late postponement due to a waterlogged pitch at Heath seven days earlier.

The forecast heavy rain didn’t arrive this time but it was gloomy throughout and dark enough to make player identification almost impossible in the closing stages.

Brid flooded the breakdown, were quickly up in defence and showed glimpses of good support play down the slope in the first half.

However, they were held at bay fairly comfortably by Brods, who more than matched Brid up front and had their usual decent supply of lineout ball from Bob Sykes.

A third-minute penalty from Jack Arthur provided an early tonic for the visitors but the fullback struck an upright from long range and was surprisingly off target with another effort shortly before the break.

Brid, who lost stand-off Ollie Stephenson to a serious-looking leg injury after 15 minutes, missed one good try opportunity when flanker Gary Heeley was unable to cling onto a ball delivered slightly behind him with the line open.

Oliver Akroyd’s easy 21st minute penalty levelled the scores and rewarded the home side for the efforts of their forwards, who helped gain field position with the help of a couple of scrum penalties.

Brods had the most dangerous back on the field in centre Michael Briggs but he landed his side in trouble with a needless yellow card five minutes before the break.

However, the impressive Georgiou combined with prop Callum Thompson to make 50 yards and fullback Phil Town drifted past visiting tacklers on a couple of occasions before the half ended.

Brid hit the front again just two minutes after the interval when they took advantage of weak tackling to break through the middle, winger Will Davies scoring an unconverted try wide on the left.

An arm wrestle in midfield followed for the next 20 minutes and Brods emerged the stronger, Briggs’s running and Town’s angled kick helping to put Brid under the cosh.

It was left to Georgiou to crack the defence, cutting inside an opponent to score from close range. Akroyd’s fairly easy conversion made it 10-8 on 61 minutes.

Brods turned the screw in the last quarter, aided by a couple of scrums against the head and good grubber kicks to touch from Tom Andrews and his half-back partner Georgiou.

They turned to Scrimshaw and the driving maul to seal victory and the experienced No 8 duly came up trumps with eight minutes left.

The sure-footed Akroyd made no mistake with the kick to deny the visitors a losing bonus point.