Cooney leaves it late to tame the Tigers

A TWELVE-TRY thriller was still in doubt up to the last play of the game when Blaydon winger James Cooney touched down in the corner to end a poor spell of results for the home side.

The Tigers took an early lead when Blaydon collapsed a scrum, running it quickly up-field for Henri Packard to cruise in under the posts but the advantage was short-lived. Blaydon hooker and head coach Matt Thompson stormed over from 15 metres and by the 36th minute had completed a hat-trick with two more tries from rolling mauls.

Jack Appleton for Blaydon and Jamie Broadley for the Tigers added further scores and going into the 40th minute it was a comfortable 24-12 lead for the home side.

In the final play of the half however Broadley was in again to signal the start of a remarkable turnaround for the visitors, 24-12 rapidly becoming 2434 with tries from Peter Swatkins, Packard with his second and an opportunist effort from scrum-half Ryan Holmes in the 55th minute.

The final quarter then belonged to Blaydon with Andrew Miller picking up and breaking sharply to send in Rob Lenderyou.

The Sheffield side were now desperately defending a three-point lead and lost two players in quick succession to the sin-bin in the process. Something had to give but it was a mighty close thing.