Heath v Guisborough: Visitors put to sword

No 8 Richard Brown scored three of the home side’s nine tries as Dave Harrison’s men retained an eight-point lead over the chasing pack with five games left.

Harrison made several changes to ensure players had game time and brought back Luke Saltonstall on the wing.

Guisborough arrived fresh from their first win of the season, having beaten local rivals Middlesbrough, but fell behind after only three minutes.

Centre Ezra Hinchliffe was held as he raced towards the corner flag but the onrushing Brown snapped up the ball and went over for a try.

Heath suffered a blow when open side flanker Jason Merrie suffered a serious-looking ankle injury. He was replaced by Matt Beasty.

The hosts continued the onslaught with some slick play but the final pass was either wayward or dropped so it remained 5-0 until the 22nd minute when Fergus Marsden romped over the try line and Hinchliffe converted.

It was all Heath and Saltonstall went close following a super kick from Michael Reynolds.

Heath were confident in throwing the ball about. Dan Cole, Hinchliffe, Jonny Cole and Saltonstall inter-changed passes from the half way line and Issy Spooner went in for probably the team’s best try of the season to stretch the lead to 17-0 on 35 minutes.

Guisborough continued to defend but they could do nothing to prevent a fourth try just before half time. Dan Cole went on a storming 70 metre run but was bundled into touch. Heath won the lineout and the ball was swept across the back-line for Saltonstall to go over in the corner. Hinchliffe’s great conversion made it 24-0.

Heath were relentless in the second half. A neat reverse pass from Reynolds gave Brown his second try, converted by Hinchliffe on 43 minutes.

Replacement Chris Robinson burst through a static Guisborough defence to pave the way for Alex Patrick to extend the lead to 36-0 two minutes later but a lapse of concentration allowed Guisborough an unconverted try on 48 minutes.

Normal service was resumed as Seife Boussadda scored twice in quick succession, Hinchliffe’s boot moving the lead out to 48-5 after 63 minutes.

Brown completed his hat-trick and Hinchliffe added the goal to round off an excellent performance from Heath, who host Bradford Salem next Saturday.