Liam Kay stars in gritty winning Pontefract RUFC effort at Old Brodleians

In the first half Ponte played down the hill with the wind at their backs and the feeling was a comfortable advantage would be needed by half-time.

This was not to be as a hefty penalty count against and unforced errors stopped Ponte’s ability to pressurise their opponents’ line.

Ponte did have their chances, centre Andy Coleman was brought back for a marginal forward pass as he headed for the line and several handling errors in the forwards stopped potential tries.

Despite this Ponte did open the scoring with a well worked try. For once the team managed to put some phases together and ever dangerous full-back Richard Dedicoat finished out wide after some slick hands in the backs. Liam Kay struck a superb conversion, the first of his 100 per cent record on the day.

The Ponte faithful were expecting a few more scores before half-time, but aided by the penalty count, Brods worked their way up the field for their well drilled pack to score a seven-pointer from a driving maul.

Ponte came close with Kay’s superb kicking game giving the pack opportunities near the line. It was not to be as for the first time this year the scrum was bettered with yellow cards and front row rotation leading to too many positional changes and an unsettled unit. That is not to take away from the excellence of the opposition pack.

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With the scores level at half-time it was hard to see where the win was coming from. But Brods tried throwing the ball about instead of their traditional tighter game plan down the slope.

Ponte’s ever reliable defence was magnificent and the effort was rewarded as a break and kick ahead from scrum-half Josh Walker gave them a five-metre scrum.

The forwards set the ball up with several drives before unstoppable giant prop Josh Hough burst over from a yard out.

That try gave Ponte something to hold onto, but things soon got even better as some magic play by man of the match Kay in his own 22 put away Craig Fawcett and Linden Metcalf, which gave the team position to set up a carbon copy, trademark try from Hough, extending the lead to two scores.

That comfort margin did not last long as, with plenty of time still to go, the hosts replied with a converted try through a forward drive.

Nerves were settled and the match was sealed with a late, well struck penalty into the wind by Kay.

There was still time for some Rourke’s Drift defence before the referee blew his whistle.

While not the best performance of the season it was for sure the gutsiest with everyone to a man standing up to be counted. Discipline must be worked on, though, as conceding three yellow cards to none is unacceptable and would cost the team another day.

Best for Pontefract on the day, besides the mercurial Kay, was Jack Beddis in possibly his last league game of the season. Prop Toby Field did well in his first game of the season, while second row Callum Rogers was workmanlike.

Pontefract return to Moor Lane this Saturday against Scarborough, as they try to exact revenge for defeat in the first meeting of the sides earlier in the season.