Bramley Buffaloes 12 (4) v 26 (24) Kippax Knights
After slumping to a heavy defeat in their opening game two weeks ago, Kippax Knights bounced back in the best possible manner with a deserved 26-12 victory against Bramley Buffaloes at Stanningley on Friday evening. In contrast, Bramley were looking to build on their draw with Stanningley ‘A’, however despite an improved second half showing the Buffaloes produced a disappointing performance that saw them lack a cutting edge in attack and soft defence down the middle.
Both teams saw their opening attacks pulled back for forward passes; however it was the Buffaloes who started the brighter and looked sharp in attack. Therefore it came as no surprise when O’Connor’s deft flicked pass put young winger Terry Brown in at the corner on 8 minutes. Suddards touchline kick just faded away, 4-0. Kippax though responded quickly, capitalising on some poor Buffaloes handling on 11 minutes, Danny Gill crossed out wide despite the suggestion of a knock on in the build up. Ricky Fisher added a superb conversion. Both teams then had spells testing their opponents defence, and it was the Buffaloes who were left to rue several golden opportunities to score when on 25 minutes Rob Kirk crashed over for the second Knights try easily goaled by Fisher. Bramley continued to squander possession as a result of poor ball retention and ill judged passes. They appeared to lack structure in attack and were being opened up down the middle by the Knights forwards in defence. With the clock ticking down a 4-12 score-line half time would not be too bad for the Buffaloes; however two Kippax tries in 6 minutes close to half time by Nathan Waters and Jason Pilmoor, both converted by Fisher, effectively took the game away from the Buffaloes; 4-24 at half time to Kippax.
The second half saw Bramley improve their defence and line speed so much so that it took Kippax until the 63rd minute to get into the Bramley half. However, in the preceding 23 minutes the Kippax defence stood firm and produced some excellent defence to thwart numerous Buffaloes attacks. Aaron Blake did cross for an unconverted try on 57 minutes, showing excellent footwork and strength he went over from 10m. Bramley had 2 or 3 tries ruled out for offside and held up over the line. On their rare foray into the Buffaloes half Fisher added a simple penalty to stretch the Knights lead to 8-26 on 64 minutes. A Craig Green try on 69 minutes briefly rekindled thoughts of a fight back by the Buffaloes, however the conversion attempt by Pitts struck the post and the 14 point gap remained. Hard working Buffaloes prop Callan Smith had a perfectly good try chalked off for apparently losing the ball on 75 minutes and with that the game petered out to a deserved Knights win.
This was a good response from Kippax which should have pleased their coach, especially their defensive effort. Bramley though despite working hard, were too easy to open up in the first half and lacked a cutting edge in attack throughout. Opportunities in the first half were created but wasted, whilst in the second half despite plenty of ball, field position and numerous penalties, very few clear openings were created, allied to some sloppy handling. A poor display from the home team.
Bramley Buffaloes – 1) Omar Al Rawi, 2) Garry Butterfield, 3) Aaron Blake, 4) Craig Green, 5) Terry Brown, 6) Steve Suddards, 7) Ben Dean, 8) Dave Parker, 9) Ben Pitts, 10) Gaz Hudson, 11) Callan Smith, 12) Aiden MacGregor, 13) Danny O’Connor, Subs; 14) Daz Forster, 15) Andrew Hepworth, 18) Anthony Mills, 17) Tom Roden
Tries – Brown (8), Blake (57), Green (69)
Goals – Suddards (0 from 1), Brown (0 from 1), Pitts (0 from 1).
Kippax Knights – 1) Rob Kirk, 2) Anthony Baker, 3) Alex Daniels, 4) Lee Brookes, 5) Danny Gill, 6) Chris Redfearn, 7) Ricky Fisher, 8) Dan Monaghan, 9) Nathan Waters, 10) Jason Pilmoor, 11) Joe Topping, 12) Craig Riley, 13) Adam Walker, Subs; 14) Louis Dudley, 15) Louis Silkstone, 16) David IIllingworth, 17) Sam Tatham
Tries – Gill (13), Kirk (25), Waters (31), Pilmoor (37)
Goals – Fisher (5 from 5)
Men of the Match –
Bramley Buffaloes – Ben Dean
Kippax Knights – Nathan Waters