Heath book place in Twickenham final with impressive home win
Heath will be chasing silverware on the hallowed turf at Twickenham on Saturday after securing their place in the Papa John’s Regional 1 Championship final.
Heath will take on Barnstaple in this weekend’s showpiece thanks to last weekend’s impressive 36-13 home win over York in the semi-finals.
The hosts were quickly on the attack and after Jack Pilcher had gone close to scoring, they made the breakthrough from a line-out on 10 minutes. Ben Stringer soared high to collect and set-up the drive before Josh Crickmay barged over for the opening try, converted by Chris Johnson.
York reduced the arrears with a penalty two minutes later only for the home side to restore their seven-point advantage with Johnson’s penalty.
Olly Cook and Alex Patrick entered the arena, replacing Chris Moore and Peter Hampshire, on the half hour mark, as York began to string together some useful moves. The visitors’ pressure finally told with a penalty to make it 10-6.
From the restart Joe Morrison soared high to collect and Heath were back on the attack. Tom Clough led the charge, linking up with Ezra Hinchliffe and Callum Harriott-Brown, and York had a player carded with five minutes of the half remaining.
Heath turned the screw with a penalty kick that found touch five metres from the visitors' try-line. Stringer won ball and Jack Pilcher crossed, Chris Johnson again adding the extras, to put Heath 17-6 up at the break.
York made a blistering start to the second half, bagging a converted try with only two minutes played.
However, Heath continued to put the visitors' defence under pressure with Saif Boussaada, Clough and Pilcher going close.
When York's scrum collapsed under the pressure, they lost a player to a red card, reducing them to 14 for the rest of the game.
From the resulting penalty, Heath opted for the scrum and Olly Cook was on hand to score a try, converted by Johnson, 24-13 with 55 minutes played.
Time for change as Josh Crickmay, Jack Pilcher and Harvey Keighley-Payne came off with Chris Moore, Alex McFadden and Jonny Cole taking to the field as Heath continued to batter the York defence.
Heath were in total control of the game and from yet another scrum, Dom Walsh collected the ball before passing along the line to Joe Morrison, who finished the move off with a try that put Heath 29-13 up with ten minutes left to play.
Heath used all their bench in the closing stages with Tom Stansfield, Jack Malthouse and Max Rowntree coming on and they were quickly involved in the action as York, to their credit, continued to look for a consolation try.
However, Chris Moore intercepted the ball before releasing the supporting Ezra
Hinchliffe who sped over for the final score of the game, converted by Johnson, to round-off a fully deserved victory.
At the final whistle, there was a huge roar from the home crowd as they realised that they needed to plan their trip to Twickenham.
Saturday’s final kicks off at 5pm. Opponents Barnstaple secured their spot with a 5014 triumph over Havant.