Rishies power clear late on

Two tries in the first half gave them a lead before they allowed the visitors to come back into the game.

For 20 minutes they were forced on to the defensive until they broke away and then cruised to victory.

Player-coach Chris Stone praised the players who came into the team when the club was forced into a number of changes.

“They really stepped up to the plate. It was a good win for us, just a pity we switched off for 20 minutes. We’ll have to work on that.”

In that 20 minutes, Leos scored with the last move of the first half and then kept Rishworthians pinned in their own 22 for most of the third quarter.

The home men had started brightly with right wing Rhys Town almost getting in at the corner.

They then rejected a penalty and took a lineout, winning it well and sending the ball across the pitch for left wing Anthony Shoesmith to go over in the corner. Josh Kelly added a fine kick.

Rishworthians were keen to throw the ball around at every opportunity. Town was almost in again, but passed the ball inside to fullback Joe Billing, who shipped it on to flanker Gerard Rollings for a fine try, converted by Kelly.

The game then fell flat with the home side messing up a number of opportunities.

Right at the end of the half they were caught napping and aided by a bit of sloppy tackling Leos ran in a converted try.

The second half saw Rishworthians desperately defending on their own line for long periods, and for 10 minutes with a man less when flanker Luke Illingworth was yellow carded.

Teenager Harvey Keighley-Payne came on and added some big hits to enable the home side to finally break away.

Billing put in a long kick and Shoesmith was quickly up and robbed the ball catcher in the tackle before getting it out for his supporting captain Fraser Swarbrooke to slice through and score. Kelly converted.

Centre Kurt Sutcliffe almost got in after a flowing move involving Matthew Hunt-Brown, No 8 Nick Faulkner and Shoesmith.

Man of the match Faulkner was soon there again, though, to take a pass in midfield and score with a long run to the line.

As Leos tried to hit back, Shoesmith intercepted and ran almost the length of the field to score, Kelly adding the conversion.

In the final minutes, Kelly put through a somewhat ‘scruffy’ kick, but it was well picked up by Town, who ran in at the corner.

A Rishworthians Development XV beat Heath thirds 27-5 on the other pitch at Copley. There were two tries for Tom Cockroft and others by Brad Fowles, Ben Rooney and Will Illingworth. Luke Flanagan added a conversion.