Yorkshire Division Two: Old Grovians 40 Sheffield Medicals 11

ALTHOUGH the return of Ben Brown at fly half gave them more accuracy, Old Grovians must be disappointed with the number of penalties that they gave away in this six-try victory, the first coming in the opening minute.

Fortunately, Sheffield Medicals missed this, and most of the other opportunities that they were gifted.

In an early indication that their play in the last third had improved from the previous week, Old Grovians were ahead a few minutes later when, from a line-out, the dominant home forwards profited when captain Christian Baines went over in the corner.

Brown added an excellent conversion but penalties for holding on in the tackle and offside allowed the visitors to narrow the gap to 7-6.

The rest of the half belonged to the home side, however, with Medicals suffering a yellow card for a third offence of going in at the side.

Grovians took advantage when Matthew Williams broke off from the back of a maul to touch down, Brown converting, and, just before haf-time, Joe Garforth bagged a third try, with Brwn again adding the extras for 21-6.

The hosts got their backs into the game more in the second half, with a knock-on ending Dean Hogg's weaving run, but they won the heel against the head at the scrum and centre Anthony Griffin secured the bonus-point try after Baines' break was supported by Danny Secker.

Brown again converted from the touchline and, although the hosts again suffered a knock on to end Tom Gough's excellent run, the visitors could not stop Old Grovians' rolling maul, Secker scoring for Brown to nail the long conversion.

Medicals were in charge for the next 20 minutes, hwever, consistently pinning Old Grovians in their own red zone, where a combination of high tackles, playing the ball in the ruck and offsides eventually resulted in a debatable yellow card for home hooker Matthew Worrall for a deliberate slam.

The visitors manage a try but the spped of Griffin then created a gap for the supporting Hogg to score in the corner.

Medicals did get another consolation try just before full-time when five missed tackles allowed them to go the length of the field.