Lewis Workman’s Wonder Try Clinches Draw in Lockwood Park Stalemate
Huddersfield RUFC were held to a frustrating 27-27 stalemate at Lockwood Park against Chester, but a brave defensive show from the home side saw the game off to clinch the two points.
After the heartbreak of conceding late on in last week’s fixture at Hinckley, Field showed vigour and desire to remain firm in their final third to prevent the same fate.
The home side looked in control from the first whistle, their ability to get on the front foot early on showed a confidence that has been brewing more and more in Gareth Lewis’ side for the previous month- morale that has seen Huddersfield score 92 points in the last 3 games alone.
This was rewarded with an early try for Field. After conceding a penalty, Field piled on the pressure to turnover possession straight after the restart, and new signing Charlie Morgan rewarded Lewis’s decision to include him in the starting XV with a fine try- skipping round the Chester defence with a nice burst from the 22-Metre line to put his new team ahead 10-3.
In the first half, both teams looked to possess danger on the ball, countered only by each sides determination to retrieve it. In difficult conditions, Huddersfield couldn’t quite extend their lead despite adventurous efforts to drive forward. In the 25th minute, Chester finally punished the home side by moving the ball swiftly from left to right, and Will Du Randt was the spare man who broke through to score. The conversion was scored brilliantly from a difficult position in precarious conditions to bring Chester level.
Chester’s heads began to lift, and 5 minutes later added another seven points to the scoreboard. With play stagnant in the middle of the park, the ball was let loose from a large mass of players to give Harry Wilkinson more than enough space to run from half way and put Chester in charge for the first time in the game.
But Huddersfield’s reputable fight back ability took precedence once again. Only 3 minutes later on the half hour mark, a flowing passing combination was enough to allow Liam Stapley to break through and equal the score line going into the final 10 minutes of the half.
Despite Huddersfield taking the game to Chester, the away side were a tough beast to keep at bay. The loose muddy ground made matters even more difficult attempting to keep the physically ruthless Chester maul away from Huddersfield’s try line, and eventually Harry Wilkinson was there to put the ball over to wound the home side, giving the visitors a 24-17 lead at half time.
What better response could Gareth Lewis ask from his players in the second half, then to score one of the tries of the season? Chester came out of the traps quickly in the second half- and just as they looked to be mere inches away from extending their lead further, a turnover in possession on the Huddersfield line saw Lewis Bradley in possession. With quick thinking and even speedier feet, he ingeniously manoeuvred out of the back line to release Lewis Workman- who’s 70 metre run saw every supporter rise from their seats to applaud a magic move and the equalising try.
With the two sides scoring penalties to bring the score to 27-27, Huddersfield spent the final ten minutes of the game assertively defending their hard-earned points- in which Lewis noted were “probably two points gained”. And despite spending the final moments of the game trying to clinch a try on the counter attack, the final whistle blew and with the points shared- Huddersfield stay 12th in table.
“We missed some opportunities to build pressure with the boot today, and we didn’t have consistency in the set piece we needed. Losing Liam Parfitt early doors and then Guy Borrowdale later in the game reduced our options in the line out and hit us pretty hard. However, there were some very good individual performances and a draw was probably a fair result.” said Gareth Lewis.
