Solitary bonus point for Dinnington

Knottingley 20

DINNINGTON went into this game knowing that victory would move them above Knottingley but, on an interesting afternoon, they could only manage a losing bonus point.

The visitors made a good start and for the opening quarter of the game kept Knottingley in their own half.

At the first scrum, Dinnington took the ball against the head and kept the pressure on the home side.

A good passage of play brought them close to the home line but they were forced into touch.

Dinnington clearly had the initiative but with 15 minutes played the game was halted when the referee pulled up with a muscle injury and was unable to continue.

After a lengthy discussion, both sides agreed that Dinnington’s Steve Cannadine would take over and the game restarted with a scrum.

Unfortunately, for Dinnington the break had come at the wrong time because they struggled to get back their momentum.

From the restart scrum, Knottingley charged down an attempted clearance kick and ran in under the posts for a converted try.

Dinnington were off target with a penalty attempt shortly after but Knottingley on a rare visit to the Dinnington half were more accurate as they extended their lead to 10-0.

The Lodge Lane men came close to scoring again with a 60-yard move of rucking and mauling but were forced into touch close to the home line.

They were let off the hook when Knottingley knocked on when in the clear but close to half-time the home side landed a penalty to go into the break 13-0 ahead.

Dinnington were still in the game and they made a strong start to the second half.

With five minutes of the half played, the forwards drove a maul 40 yards before releasing the ball to the backs where full-back John Sommerville threw a dummy pass to open a clear route to the posts.

Chris Williams added the conversion.

More good work upfront put Dinnington back on attack and following a maul, Matthew Starr did a flick pass behind his back which put Tom Doughty in for a try.

Williams converted to put Dinnington into the lead and seemingly in control.

However, a few minutes later they lost the ball at a line-out allowing Knottingley to kick clear and eventually win a scum in the Dinnington twenty-two.

From this the home number eight broke through a few tackles before setting up his winger to score a converted try.

Play then became scrappy with neither side being able to create clear chances.

As the game went into the last five minutes, Knottingley were clearly looking to stop Dinnington earning a losing bonus point but fortunately they missed with a penalty and a very ambitious drop goal attempt.