Buffaloes Put the Knights to the Sword
On a warm and sunny evening, the Buffaloes travelled the short distance to Kippax Knights for the Buffaloes third game in a week.
The squad was rotated and Garry Butterfield and Jonny Bradley returned to the starting line up and Andrew Hepworth made his return after breaking his arm against Skirlaugh earlier in the season.
In the early parts of the game both defences were strong and trying to force a mistake to find a chink in the amour. The Buffaloes were however also guilty of trying to force the pass too many times with the ball going to ground.
In the 18th minute the Kippax defence broke when Hooker, Craig Boot, dummied from the play of the ball and dove through the gap created for the opening try of the game, with Scrum Half Liam Copland adding the conversion to give the Buffaloes the lead 0-6.
The game reverted to the strong-arm tactics of before until the 32nd minute, when the Kippax side earned themselves three repeat sets and with the ball in hand, camped on the Buffaloes Try Line, the defence stood firm and repelled the attack time and again, until Kippax made an error the Buffaloes got the ball in hand again.
The second half was pretty much in the same vein as the first, with more penalties and more of the Referee calling to stop the clock and discussing things he couldn’t or rather didn’t see with his touch judges.
In the 45th minute, Kippax opened their account following some poor defence from the Buffaloes, Louis Slikstone raced 50 metres to touch down for an unconverted try, narrowing the game to 4-6.
Five mintues later Boot was in for his second of the night, again scooting from dummy half to dive over the line for a try with Copland again converting making the score 4-12.
At the start of injury time Kippax’s Gavin Adkin was sin binned for a high shot and several plays later Sam Nicholls barged his way over the line for an try again converted by Copland, making the score 4-18.
Shorty after the restart the referee blew for full time.
Knights: 1) Liam Wiggins, 2) Danny Gill, 3) Connor Sockett, 4) Dale Boulton, 5) Harrison Oliver, 6) Will Milner, 7) Nathan Waters, 8) Craig Jones, Connor Jordan, Rob Firth, 11) Ryan Waters, 20) Joe Topping, 13) Mitchell Kaye, Subs; 14) Gavin Adkin, 15) Alex Daniels, 16) Louis Skilstone, 17) Dan Monaghan
Tries: Silkstone (45).
Goals
Buffaloes: 1) Terry Brown, 2) Garry Butterfield, 3) Nathan Hammond, 4) Matty Harding, 5) Ayden Webster, 6) Aaron Blake, 7) Liam Copland, 8) Gaz Hudson, 9) Craig Boot, 10) Dave Parker. 11) Alex Brier, 12) Sam Nicholls, 13) Jonny Bradley, Subs; 14) Andrew Hepworth, 15) Luke Jackson, 16) Ryan Jackson, 17) Anthony Mills
Tries: Boot (18, 50), Nicholls (80)
Goals: Copland x 3
Man Of the Match: Craig Boot