Huddersfield RUFC gained a valuable two points on the road as they were held to a 14-14 draw at Stourbridge.
A three-week break from fixtures due to a twice over cancellation of the Tynedale fixture allowed a few faces to bring themselves back to fitness for this trip down to the midlands, and they made themselves recognised straight away.
Fran Entressengle was one from this list and he was the beneficiary of a driving maul from the lineout to force the ball over the line and give Field the advantage within the first five minutes of the game, Will Milner stepping up to successfully add the conversion despite the swirling wind.
With the wind behind them, Field had nature on their side as Stour, after threatening an immediate response, then struggled to break out of their half during wave after wave of Huddersfield attacks.
But just when it was needed for the home side, a moment of inspiration came.
The ball was given to the winger out wide who had plenty of open space to attack, and he put on the afterburners to evade the challenge of covering full back Tom Hodson and cross the whitewash to level the scores after the conversion was added.
A frustrating try for Field to concede given the pattern of the game, but they came straight back on the front foot and had multiple opportunities from lineouts which were disappointingly foiled by errors once the ball was in play.
They got the reward their persistence deserved however when after the Stour defence was drawn into the right corner, the ball was exchanged neatly across the pitch by Field to allow Hodson to atone for his earlier missed challenge and nip past one himself to score the try.
Milner duly sent the ball between the posts and the halftime whistle blew with Field holding a narrow 14-7 advantage.
In the second half Field managed to maintain their pressure on Stour despite now playing against the elements, but failed to notch that all important third try which would’ve given themselves some breathing space.
This came back to bite them when Stour broke through the Field line too easily for the away sides liking in the centre of the park and made the man overload through the supporting runs count to tie up the scores.
Neither side really threatened to add anything more onto the scoreboard in the closing stages and will both be relatively satisfied with a hard-fought draw, although Field will perhaps think they should have made more of the opportunities they had.
The result means Field actually drop a place in the table to 13th due to a Luctonians victory, but crucially extend the gap from Otley in the final relegation space to seven points after they went down 20-14 to Hull.
Next up for Field is the visit of playoff chasing Hinckley to Lockwood Park, whose late season winning streak has seen them creep up to four points behind 2nd placed Fylde and will undoubtedly provide another stern test for Gareth Lewis and his players.
