Ilkley 0 Sheffield Tigers 65

ILKLEY’S proud two-years undefeated home record was blown out of the water by a truly superb Tigers side who were s 13-0 up after just ten minutes and leading by 39 points at half-time.

The home side simply could not get hold of the ball and retain it long enough to release their talented backs and every error was punished clinically.

The Dalesmen battled to the end and earned the respect of the vociferous travelling support, even if a 65-0 drubbing doesn’t look good on grass or paper. Outplayed in just about everywhere on the park, Ilkley never gave up and only some unforced errors put paid to any points on the board, which is scant reward for the effort put in.

Sheffield’s former Otley stand-off Mark Ireland stood out, scoring one of his side’s nine tries and converting seven of them, plus a two penalties for a 25-point haul. In contrast, Ilkley’s one pot at goal from Joe Rowntree missed by a whisker and alas, there were to be no more opportunities.

Tigers went at Ilkley from the off and the home side had to put in a series of crunching tackles to keep the visitors out. Skipper Josh Kimber cleared his lines, but from the resultant line-out, good hands enabled scrum-half Ryan Holmes to score under the posts.

Ireland kicked the conversion and then two penalties to give his side a 13-0 lead after just ten minutes. Ilkley lost possession from the kick-off and another classy break out from defence allowed full-back Peter Swatkins to dot down under the posts.

Ilkley played well for the next ten minutes and earned their only kickable penalty when the Tigers backs strayed offside. Tigers gained possession from the 22 and more slick interpassing and a chip ahead led to flanker Kain Raix going over.

Ilkley’s misery was compounded when after a great run by Ben Magee, Tigers were penalised and Kimber kicked for touch, five metres out.

Unfortunately, the line-out was lost and a penalty conceded. A magnificent kick to deep into the Ilkley 22 led to a line for the Tigers and a clean catch allowed the pack to set up a try for Ireland who duly converted.

The Dalesmen were unlucky to concede a further converted try before half-time when a Tigers attack seemed to include both a knock-on and a forward pass, but there was that man Raix on hand again to take the scoring pass.

The early stages of the second half were better from an Ilkley perspective but they could not put points on the board.

However, they were not able to secure anything like enough quality ball and the Tigers’ defence was up so quickly, that nerves were jangled and passes went astray.

Into the last quarter and Tigers turned up the heat. First, winger Jamie Broadly completed a text-book move from a set scrum and it came as no surprise when Tigers went over again, courtesy of Broadley from what looked a forward pass. The conversion took the score over the 50 mark.

Tigers completed the scoring with two more converted tries by Jonathan Buchanan and finally Liam Wallace, as Ilkley tired in the last ten minutes.

Well, that’s that one out of the way. It was only two seasons ago that Ilkley lost to Wath by over 50 points and they won the Yorkshire One Championship the following April, so their supporters should not be too disheartened by this result.