Hunslet Hawks’ five game winning streak was ended by Doncaster on Friday evening (5 August 2016) as the clubs met in the third round of the Kingstone Press League 1 Super 8s at South Leeds Stadium.
In a good game of attacking rugby, three unanswered Doncaster tries in sixteen minutes of the first half established a decisive lead, which Hunslet couldn’t pull back despite the fantastic vocal support of the home crowd.
Doncaster took an early lead on 6 minutes when Louis Sherrif took the offload from Kyle Kesik and crossed for the first try of the match. Tom Carr converted, kicking the first of six goals for the evening.
Hunslet replied five minutes later when Danny Ansell latched onto a mistake by Carr following a grubber kick. Ansell converted his own try to even the scores at 6-6.
Doncaster kept up their attacking pressure and scored three more tries without reply. First Tom Carr went over from Dummy Half on 14 minutes and then David Foggin-Johnston scored in the corner on 20 minutes. Ten minutes later, on the half hour, Makali Aizue went over. Tom Carr scored all three conversions to take Doncaster’s lead to 6-24.
Jake Normington for Hunslet and Joe Pickets-O’Donnel for Doncaster were both sin binned before half time for separate incidents. There was no further scoring and teams went in at half time with the score Hunslet Hawks 6-24 Doncaster.
The Hawks came out with a quick try at the start of the second half when Kyran Johnson collected a high bomb and scored under the posts. Danny Ansell kicked the extras to bring Hunslet back with two scores of Doncaster.
On 50 minutes Louis Sherrif scored his second try of the night and Carr kicked the goal.
Hunslet scored the next try to stay in game with twenty minutes left, Lewis Reed scored under the posts and Danny Ansell converted the try, but Hunslet still trailed by 12 points.
Doncaster sealed the win in the 70th minute when Foggin-Johnston collected Howden’s chip to score. Tom Carr once more kicked the goal to re-establish the Dons 18 point lead.
Hunslet had the last word with Danny Thomas scoring under the posts with four minutes left in the game. Danny Ansell converted, but it was too little too late and Doncaster took the two points from the game.
Final score: Hunslet Hawks 24-36 Doncaster
Teams:
Hunslet Hawks: Watson, Sanderson, Johnson, Mvududu, Barnett, Thomas, Ansell, Coventry, Lee, Reed, Williams, Normington, Milburn. Subs: Flanagan, Carbutt, Casey, Haley.
Doncaster: Carr, Foggin-Johnston, L. Welham, Doherty, Sheriff, Howden, Cross, Scott, Kesik, Castle, Tonks, Walton, Milton. Subs: Wright, B. Nicholson, Aizue, Pickets-O’Donnell.
Referee: John Roberts
