The team travelled to Wortley RUFC on Saturday 6th January to kick off the new year in the South Yorkshire Merit League. Going into the game, the side knew they had a lot to work on following some ill discipline and scrappy performances prior to Christmas, and Wortley proved they would not just roll over and allow the league leaders to stroll their way to victory.

From the kick off, Dearne received the ball and immediately cleared their lines to gain territory in the Wortley half. The resulting line out was turned over and Dearne launched multi-phase attack just inside the Wortley halfway line. Besides making little ground in the first stages, with the Wortley defence holding strong, Sam Holt found himself with the ball on the left wing and evaded his opposite number along with the covering full back to run in from 50 metres out for his 11th try of the season. Stephen Shaw failed to add the extras and Dearne had an early lead 0-5.

If the opening minutes of play meant Dearne were now thinking they were in for an easy afternoon then they better think twice! Wortley regained the ball from their own kick off and had phase after phase of good attacking pressure in the Dearne half, but could never quite turn the territory into points. Dearne were struggling at the breakdown and were repeatedly penalised for either not rolling away or for hands in the ruck. Wortley continued to kick to touch but the resulting line out never went truly to plan and Dearne could count themselves lucky when they turned over the ball and Stephen Shaw finally managed to clear their lines with a good clearance kick into the Wortley half.

Dearne finally had a few passages of play with the ball back. However, multiple handling errors kept disrupting the flow of their attack and there were clearly signs of rust following the long 5-week break since their last competitive fixture. Besides the errors, they were eventually rewarded on the Wortley 22 metre line with a penalty. Stephen Shaw slotted over the kick to extend their lead to 0-8 with 25 minutes played.

The rest of the first half was a frustrating one for Dearne, with Wortley repeatedly starving them of any ball with good passages of multi-phase rugby and were doing a better job than Dearne at keeping the ball and recycling it at the breakdown. After multiple further infringement's, this time for high tackles, the referee brought captain Archie Adams to one side and put the men in white and black on a final warning. Thankfully for Dearne, Wortley opted to go for 3-points rather than continue to mount the pressure on our own try line. This was a good result for Dearne as the next penalty would of likely resulted in a yellow card. Half-time quickly approached and it was 3-8 at the break.

Second half changes saw Alex Mincher come on at prop for Craig Collins and Luke Robinson come on at wing for Will Hudson. The immediate opening passage of the second half carried on pretty much like the first, with Wortley starving Dearne of any possession and when Dearne did have the ball, they couldn't put any more than 2-3 phases together without either making an error or conceding a penalty at the breakdown.

On 50 minutes, Stephen Shaw put in a hopeful kick into the Wortley 22. The Wortley covering player failed to deal with it and a charge down led to Andrew Thorpe dotting down for an easy try to somehow extend Dearne's lead. The conversion was missed and Dearne now had a little breathing space with the score at 3-13. Dearne appeared to get some momentum at this moment, and finally started to make good in-roads into the Wortley half and retain possession. On 55 minutes, the ball was passed out wide on to the left wing for Sam Holt to run in for his second try of the afternoon. The conversion was again missed and the score was now 3-18.

From the kick off Wortley continued their good efforts in attack, continuing to cause a faltering Dearne defence issues. A penalty on the Dearne 22 was kicked over to reduce the deficit to 6-18 with Wortley again in the ascendancy.

As the second half went on, the Wortley players started to show signs of fatigue and Dearne's large amount of substitutions and ability to bring on fresh legs clearly made the difference. On 62 minutes, further line breaks meant Dearne found themselves within the Wortley 22 before the ball was again moved into space for Jack Duggan to run in for his first try of the afternoon, having replaced the injured Sam Holt. The conversion slipped wide and the score stood at 6-23. Not long later, further passages of attacking play meant Dearne had another opportunity, this time with Danny Bell charging over from short range for Dearne's 5th and final try of the afternoon. The conversion was again missed, 13-28 with 10 minutes remaining.

The remainder of the match saw Dearne continue to fight off a string of Wortley attacks. Finally, with seconds remaining on the clock, sustained pressure on the Dearne try line resulted in the referee rewarding Wortley with a penalty try. This was the least they deserved after an afternoon which saw them stress the Dearne defence more than any other side we have faced this season, and may possibly be thinking they were unlucky not to be up against 14 or even 13 men at some point with the amount of penalties Dearne gave away.

Man of the match was given to Bailey Woods for an outstanding debut at prop. Speaking after the game, head coach Callum Emery said "first of all congratulations to Wortley, they just gave us the toughest game we have had all season and may be coming off the field feeling hard done by." He continued "we just could not get any momentum in the game, and struggled to put more than 4 or 5 phases together whether that be due to handling errors or conceding silly penalties. Definitely plenty to work on moving forwards, but happy to come away with 5 points and continue our winning run."

Dearne now face a break from league action, as they welcome Stanley Rodillians RUFC at home next weekend in a friendly. The boys know that they have plenty to work on in training and will be hoping to be a little sharper and more composed in their next outing.

STARTERS
1. Craig Collins
2. Archie Adams (C)
3. Bailey Woods
4. John Williams
5. John Dudley
6. Joe Patterson
7. Jacob Bradder
8. Callum Young
9. Clayton Taylor
10. Stephen Shaw (1P)
11. Sam Holt (2T)
12. Andrew Thorpe (VC) (1T)
13. Ben Hartley
14. Will Hudson
15. Sam Oxley

FINISHERS
16. Alex Mincher
17. Oluwatomiwa Akintokun
18. Ross Whale
19. Danny Bell (1T)
20. Carl Levitt
21. Ash Horrobin
22. Rob Bowling
23. Max Phillips
24. Luke Robinson
25. Jack Duggan (1T)