TIGERS 25

OTLIENSIANS 14

OTLIENSIANS received a setback early on Saturday when three of the players in the squad could not travel.

This weakened the pack with the changes taking out Chris Baldwin, Richard 'Mescher' Smith and Peter Bonner. Their replacements were Michael Wilson, Roy Aldridge and Andy Rayner.

Having difficulty with the traffic round Sheffield they only managed to arrive at the ground ten minutes before kick-off. Ground conditions were reasonably good but there was a wild wind which would obviously have an influence.

The home side took the lead after ten minutes with a converted try and a further blow came when Andy Rockett had to retire with a calf muscle injury. He was replaced by Roy Aldridge. The home side were not to be denied and increased their lead with an unconverted try and a penalty to give them a 15-0 lead at the break.

In the second-half as in the first though Otliensians played with plenty of spirit the home side were winning the cleaner possession. However, in a period of Otliensian attack Ian Chaplin kicked three penalties but it was not enough to hold back the Tigers.

Sheffield kicked another penalty and scored a converted try but Otliensians were not to be denied and scored an excellent try by David Smith who was put away by Simon Coates.

Although that concluded their scoring their second-half performance was excellent with the forwards well led by Richard Smith while Anthony Collins set a fine example of defensive wing play with some solid tackling.

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