Home  News Forgers Storm to Conference First
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Forgers Storm to Conference First |
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Scunthorpe Barbarians | | 34 | 22
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The Sheffield Forgers finally stamped their mark on the Conference with a hard fought home victory against Scunthorpe Barbarians. In slippery conditions they held their nerve to hold a well deserved 34-22 lead to the final whistle.
The Forgers, reeling from two heavy defeats in the preceding weeks made a number of changes to the sides that had been so comprehensively beaten.
Influential prop Sam Turnell made a much awaited full return from injury, and another bonus was the return of last years hero Dave Reed. The prop is beginning his rehabilitation from injury, and adds some much needed size to The Forgers pack.
 Captain Vinnie Caudwell
The game began at a frenetic pace with the new look Forgers quickly asserting their new found confidence on the opposition. They were causing The Barbarians problems in both attack and defence with some strong running, and powerful tackling. But the positive start was undone after ten minutes when the visitors took the lead.
The Forgers were able to answer straight back with a powerful score from Captain Vinnie Caudwell, but the visitors scored again shortly after.
Scunthorpe began to gain a foothold in the game, with their impressive half-back pairing causing no end of problems with their jinking runs and probing play. Another Scunthorpe score out wide and a reply from The Forgers gave the visitors a one score lead at half time.
In the second half, the game began to swing The Forgers way as they broke more tackles and made more ground. Fullback Joel Barrett repeatedly showed the way through the Scunthorpe defensive line and very quickly other Forgers followed.
The impressive part of the second half display however was not so much the Forgers offence as their goal line defence. The hosts refused to let their visitors cross the try line and began to repel every offence with the tenacity of a lion defending a kill. It was this defence that laid the platform for a number of second half scores including a well worked try from Loose Forward Tom Gray and a break away try from Caudwell who ran more than half the length of the pitch.
 Returning hero Dave Reed
The Forgers team was full of heroes this week with every player contributing to a fine victory, but hat trick hero and captain Vinnie Caudwell was only surpassed by Joel Barrett whose faultless display at fullback displayed athletic attack and surefooted defence to give The Forgers the platform they needed to go on to win their first conference game.
Next up for The Forgers is the return leg of the Rossington fixture, which resulted in only a narrow defeat away from home. Hoping to build on this success The Forgers can now surely enter the game with not only the knowledge that they can compete at this level, but also the belief that they can now kick on and win more games.
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