Brods back to winning ways putting Malton and Norton to the sword
Match report by Gordon Feather
Brods were looking to make amends after last week’s disappointing first loss of the season at Rochdale last week, and today faced old rivals, Malton and Norton. Despite a number of key players missing through injury and suspension, the Brods still put out a strong looking side reflecting their strength in depth this season.

A sizeable crowd gathered under clear skies and perfect playing conditions, in good spirits after another top-class lunch provided by Ryan in the kitchen and entertainment from funnyman John Stiles.

Brods opened proceedings kicking off down the slope and quickly turned over Malton to gain possession. On their first set of phases of possession, the Brods attacked the visitor’s line with great intent and in short time young wing Ethan Wroot forced his way over the whitewash to score the opening try. The conversion was missed but opening the score at 5-0 to Brods in the first minute of play.

The visitors attacked from the kick off and briefly threatened the Brods line, but confident Brods, showing no hangover from last week, impressively drove downfield moving the ball sweetly in backs and forwards alike. A clever kick from fly half, Josh Kelly, took play to within 5m of the visitors’ line, where, from the ensuing line out, the visitors’ throw was poached by Brods’ forwards and the ball was spread across the back line where Harry Dunne raced through to score to the left of the posts. Josh Kelly made no mistake with the conversion taking the score to 12-0 after barely 10 minutes played,

Again, Malton showed determination and attacked uphill and camped in Brod’s territory before home scrum half, Jimmy Hodkinson, relieved pressure with a splendid long kick into the visitors’ 22 where the Malton defence managed to collect, turn and find touch some 30m out from their own line. From the line out the Brods forwards drove down the slope with ‘slimline’ Liam Stapley, in particular, showing up well after returning from injury. Brods were passing with gay abandon and quickly impressive Dom Georgiou broke on the right wing position putting young Wroot on his inside over for his second try of the match. The successful Kelly conversion taking the score to 19-0 after as many minutes played.
At this stage the Brods were unstoppable and only a marginal forward pass in a long attacking move at the left hand corner prevented another score following a Dunne break.
However, pressure was maintained and following a scrum some 5m from the visitors’ line, fly half Kelly dummied his way over the try line for the Brods’ fourth and bonus point try, with the visitors’ backs in disarray. His conversion taking the score to 26-0 after only 22 minutes played.

After 30 minutes, popular forward Alex Dawson replaced prop Joe Sealey who had had an impressive game thus far. The Brods forwards with tireless Stapley, Millington, Sykes and Craven to the fore, were in total control and after 36 minutes, following a scrum some 22m from the visitors’ line a delayed Kelly pass and perfect running line saw Doug Heseltine carve his way through for a spectacular try – straight from the training ground. The conversion made the score 33-0 where it remained at half time and the Brods had executed a near perfect half’s play against determined visitors.

The second half began with Malton displaying great resolve to show what they could do and went on the attack. Holding the ball up and driving well after a period of pressure, Malton opened their account with a well worked try on the left side, the conversion taking the core to 33-7. It was now the visitors’ turn to tighten the screw and their scrum-capped back row forward was beginning to make inroads in the forwards and in the visitors’ back line their effective, if ungainly, full back was proving a handful. However, at this stage in the game mistakes were being made and Brods were once again on the attack. Following a Brods scrum after several phases of attack were repelled, Kelly put in a trademark grubber kick on the visitors’ 22 for speedy wing Dom Giorgiou to nip through and score a cheeky try under the posts. With the conversion successful the score was now 40-7 after 50 minutes.

The Brods now made several replacements to the forwards allowing the hardworking forwards respite and the home side, unsurprisingly, had lost some intensity. The visitors however were fired up and maintaining pressure. After 65 minutes their backs made a break on the right-hand side and their speedy winger was in for a try, the conversion taking the score to 40-14. The irrepressible Brods after looking tired regained territory and after several moves along the three-quarter line a floated pass out to wingman Georgiou saw him outpace his counterpart to score a try uphill in the right side corner. This was a difficult try to execute as the pass was slightly behind him and he effectively outsprinted the defence from a standing start. The conversion was missed but the score was now 45-14 on 70 minutes.

The final 10 minutes belonged to Malton who scored 2 well worked tries giving them a bonus point and making a final score of 45-24 to the Brods. The final whistle went with Brods on the attack with the home faithful in the stand urging them to score again and reach 50 points but it was not to be.

With Rochdale losing at Scarborough, who are also in the mix for winning the league this season, the Brods move up to second place in the league on the same number of points as leaders Salem but with an inferior points difference. This sets up very well the Brods next fixture, away to Scarborough on 9 November.