Cool Ireland has Zebras feeling green with envy
Otley …………….29
Sheffield ……..32
SHEFFIELD Tigers narrowly overcame Otley in a tightly-contested and gripping Yorkshire derby at Cross Green.
Both sides took time to settle into the game, the stalemate being broken after 16 minutes by a Tigers penalty clinically slotted by Mark Ireland.
Otley responded immediately after, with Will Burns breaking the line to put Max Johnson through which Ben Smith converted.
After converted penalties for both sides, the Tigers pounced on a ball that squirmed out of a scrum with James Broadley running to the line.
The classy Ireland then punished a deliberate knock-on by Otley, before Otley came away from the line with a penalty try and the Tigers a yellow.
The Tigers retook the lead with a penalty, however, making the score 19-17 at the interval.
They extended their lead after speedster Peter Swatkins put in Broadley down the right-hand-side, Ireland once again safely adding the extras.
TEAMS
OTLEY: Magee, Dudman,
Morgan, Adu, Roberts, Smith, Johnson, Rigg, Graham, Moss, Mitchell, Willett, Malthouse, Dallavalle, Burns
Replacements: Burkinshaw, Morton, Steele, Sanderson, Petchey
SHEFFIELD TIGERS: Swatkins, Broadley, Hart, Duffy, Pond, Ireland, Holmes, Bingham, Townsend, Simmons, Newman, Orion, Wallace, Monks, Symcox Al
Replacements: Bennett, Symcox An, Crofts, Archer, Redfern-Brown
REFEREE: Owen Taylor
ATTENDANCE: 250
Star man
Mark Ireland – Sheffield Tigers
Otley reduced the deficit from a lineout, moving the ball across the pitch with Ben Magee scoring.
Another deliberate knock-on by Otley earned them a yellow card and a converted penalty.
Otley levelled after 64 minutes, when stand-in flyhalf Paul Petchey broke the line, sold an intelligent dummy and ran 35 metres to score, which Ben Magee converted.
With ten minutes to go a collapsed Otley scrum in front of their posts gave the Tigers a slender lead, which they didn't relinquish as Otley suffered further disappointment.
