Heath sink Salem to stay top of Yorkshire One

Coach Dave Harrison gave starting berths in the forwards to Matt Beasty, Olly Cook and Jordan Moana and with the unavailability of Alex Patrick and Jonny Cole, up stepped Martyn Barnes to start, with Richard Brown and Paul Turner sitting on the bench alongside evergreen Si Brown.

Salem’s last tasted victory at home against Heath back in April 2010, and in dark gloomy conditions they kicked off going deep and were immediately rewarded with a converted try for a 7-0 after five minutes.

Salem continued to mount assaults and following the sin-binning of Beasty they increased their lead with a penalty to make it 10-0 with 20 minutes played.

Heath were struggling to contain a rampant home side and from the re-start they ran the length of the field and should have added to their score but dropped the ball with a second try begging.

A knock to Martyn Barnes saw Richard Brown enter the fray to try and stem the tide and this had an immediate impact.

Heath, at last, managed to keep hold of the ball and as Olly Cook, Saif Boussaada, Jordan Moana and Chris Moore made good yardage, the visitors mounted a first real attack.

Salem were struggling to contain the onslaught and had a player sin-binned as the Heath forwards took control and with 30 minutes played Heath were on the scoreboard with a try from Richard Brown, 10-5.

Paul Turner replaced Olly Cook and Beasty returned from the bin and Heath were back to full strength and playing with a renewed confidence. A strong run from Dave Skinner saw him offload to Saif Boussaada and his clever kick through saw Callum Harriott-Brown win the race to touchdown and level the scores at 10-10 as half time arrived.

Heath began the second half in confident mood with Salem struggling to contain the forwards’ barrage and following a number of collapsed scrums the referee had no option but to award Heath a penalty try as the score pushed out to 17-10 with 45 minutes on the clock.

An injury to Richard Brown saw Martyn Barnes return to action and, as the home side continued to struggle, they had another player sin-binned to give Heath the upper hand again.

From a poor Salem line-out Jordan Moana grappled for the ball and scored a third try, converted by Ezra Hinchliffe, and Heath looked comfortable at 24-10 with a quarter of the game to play.

Now it was time for Heath to extend a fragile Salem defence as they looked for an extra bonus point try.

However, much to the Salem players credit, the home side had other ideas and fought back scoring an unconverted try to reduce the arrears 24-15 and continued to put more pressure onto the Heath defence.

Heath were resilient and mounted a final attack as the clocked ticked down and from a scrum drive a super kick from Dan Cole enabled flying wing Harriott-Brown to pounce in the corner for that vital bonus point try.

Hinchliffe added the extras from the sideline.