Siddal confirm their play-off place with comfortable victory over Warriors
SIDDAL WON in their final away game in Division D, despite not playing at their best against Hunslet Warriors on Saturday, writes Joe McCormack.
The 38-12 win secures a top two finish and a home draw in the play-offs, which start on September 18.
A home game against Stanningley on Saturday in the final league game is to come between now and then.
Siddal took the initiative on Saturday after five minutes when the lively Christian Ackroyd stole the ball in a tackle and sprinted clear of the Warriors’
defence to score and open up a 4-0 lead.
Just four minutes later the lead was extended to 10 points when man-of-the-match Jamie Greenwood broke down the middle and the supporting Liam Whitton showed his pace by racing from 40 yards to touch down under the posts. Gareth Blackburn added on an easy conversion.
Defences were on top for the next ten minutes with Jack Georgiou, Dan Williams, Oliver Waite and Byron Smith all putting in a strong tackling stint.
Freddy Walker was next to register a try as he spotted a gap to touch down after 22 minutes, with Blackburn’s conversion extending the lead to 16-0.
Siddal scored again in their next attack when Kristian Bell’s long ball to Blackburn found the winger out wide and he held off two tacklers to touchdown and kick a very good conversion to stretch the lead to 22 points.
Hunslet hit back before half time with a try in the corner from Tyler Dargan following quick hands down the back line. David Notron’s conversion made it 22-6 at half time.
Warriors started the second half strongly and cut the deficit to 10 points on 53 minutes when hooker Liam Brown dived over from acting half back and Norton successfully added the conversion.
Siddal rolled up their sleeves with a more determined showing in the last 20 minutes.
Ben Hinsley powered over the line after 61 minutes and Blackburn improved the try with a conversion to restore distance between the teams on the scoreboard at 28-12.
Five minutes later a fluent attacking move involving Greenwood, Josh Milnes, Hinsley and Lewis Hosty saw the centre find his wing partner Sam Walsh whose dive for the line saw him make it 32-12 but also suffer an injury in the act of scoring by the corner flag.
The scoring was completed five minues from time.
Will Scrimshaw, Danny Rushworth and Harry Georgiou were all involved in creating the attacking platform for Greenwood to find Ackroyd and the half back dummied his way over the line to leave Blackburn with a simple conversion that wrapped-up a fine win.