Phoenix Rising
Rotherham Phoenix 15 Sheffield Medics 10
Rotherham Phoenix secured promotion into Yorkshire 4 with a hard fought win against Sheffield Medics on Saturday. Infront of an impressive crowd Rotherham achieved what they had been striving for all season long, with automatic promotion out of sight Rotherham turned their attention to the play off match that could gain them entry to the league above. Rotherham won the toss and chose to play into a headwind in the first half, the home side started slowly and Medics pegged Phoenix back to their own 22m, from a resulting line out Medics forced an overlap and scored in the corner, the conversion was successfully added and Phoenix knew they were in for a tough task, the forwards stepped up and turned the screw on the Medics scrum, the Rotherham front three consisting of Chris Baldwin, Scott Crookes and Carl Banks ran riot over the opposition scrum ensuring the opposing team was on the back foot and presented a perfect attacking platform for the Phoenix backs.
Medics could cope with the pace at which the Rotherham team were playing at and some bullocking runs from Simon Duke and Jon Bunclark threatened to break through the Medics midfield on several occasions, however it was the forwards that made the breakthrough as Captain Richard Westran crashed over from short range after good work from Andy Stewart and Sam Pitcher, Tom Jenkinson added the conversion to level the scores. Phoenix were not done and powered their way back to the Medics line and after several infringements the Medics scrum half was sent to the sin bin for a proffesional foul. Jenkinson slotted the resulting penalty to put Phoenix in the lead for the first time but the home team knew that they needed to take advantage of the extra man and it was the captain Richard Westran who stepped up and crashed over for his second of the match, Jenkinson missed the conversion and Phoenix went into half time leading 15 - 7.
The second half was a tense affair and saw Medics throw everything at the home teams line, Phoenix struggled for possesion and spent most of the time on the back foot, this was not helped by the change in weather conditions as the Rotherham side played yet again into the wind. The Medics team knew there was no way through the Phoenix forwards and opted to utilize their dangerous backs but some try saving tackles from Jon Saddington and Jon Ross kept medics at bay, several big hits and excellent contact skills from centre partnership Owen Swift and Simon Duke saw medics being turned over on numerous occasions, however Phoenix could not capitilize on these oppertunities and could only kick back possesion to the Sheffield side. The forwards were keeping Rotherham in the game with excellent line out work from Ben Hastie and Dan Cadman but the Phoenix team could not add to the scoreboard.
A Medics penalty set up a tense finish but Rotherham saw out the end the game. For Rotherham this was an outstanding performance that capped off an impressive league campaign and ensured the whole club received a reward for all the effort that has made the Phoenix team the most successfull rugby club in Rotherham this season.
