MALTON & NORTON 21 HEATH 19

THIS was Malton & Norton's third encounter with Heath this season and, as in the two previous games, the result could hardly have been closer.

Heath won the home league game 25-23 and Malton took the Yorkshire Shield game 10-3. On Saturday, Heath took a 19-7 lead, forcing Malton to dig deep to gain the victory.

Only some good early defence by Malton and the power of the pack in the set scrums kept the line intact.

After 15 minutes, Malton strayed offside at a ruck and Heath player Ezra Hinchliffe duly took the points on offer.

Loose passes or poor retention put the brake on Malton but their pack strength told on 25 minutes when a scrum on the Heath 22-metre line was picked up by Josh Heggie, who drove into the visitors' defence.

This time there was no mistake and a solid drive progressed to the line for prop Ben Boothman to get the all-important touch down. Zweli Sodladla converted and Malton now had a slender lead.

Malton fly-half Nick Daley was sin-binned for pulling back an opponent and Hinchliffe took the points to narrow the gap to a single point.

Heath took full advantage of the extra man and Hinchliffe again punished Malton, deep into injury time, with a further penalty to give his side a 9-7 interval advantage.

Early in the second half, Malton's Sodladla was sent to the sin-bin for a late tackle. From the penalty, Heath kicked to the corner, where a good catch at the line-out set up a maul.

Malton seemed to have defended it well yet the referee, without warning, awarded a penalty try to Heath to the bewilderment of most of those present. Hinchliffe's conversion gave his side a 16-7 lead.

Malton were penalised in front of their own posts for an offside and the visitors struck a penalty.

The hosts' set scrummage was dominant throughout and when Heath lost a second front-row forward, uncontested scrums were introduced.

Malton were awarded their first penalty of the game after 57 minutes as skipper Sam Triffitt took a tap kick and handed off several attempted tackles to score his side's second try, Ian Cooke adding the conversion.

The home pack held the upper hand in most of the close exchanges and some of the picking and driving was from the top drawer.

A series of scrums on the Heath line saw Malton set up a drive on each occasion. Heggie made ground each time and, from the fourth attempt, Heath failed to to stop Boothman getting his second try to level the scores.

Sodladla slotted home the conversion and Malton had a two-point lead with still 15 minutes left to play.

Heath kept on coming but the home defence was solid and Malton were able to maintain their winning streak.

Malton: Z Sodladla, H Coulson, V Dyantjies, S Harrison, I Cooke, N Daley, P Angus, E Gwilliam, J Thornton, B Boothman, J Rounthwaite, J Lumley, A Coe, S Triffitt, J Heggie. Subs (all used): S Emms, N Salisbury, T Lowry.