Ilkley Climb in League Table With Win Over Cleckheaton

Regional One North East: Cleckheaton 25, Ilkley 44

ILKLEY are well on track to better their highest-ever finish in Regional One North East.

They currently sit third, having advanced a place at the weekend after winning their derby 44-25 at bottom-of-the-table Cleckheaton, while Harrogate dropped a spot to fourth following their 44-36 home defeat to leaders Heath.

However, finishing above the seventh place that Ilkley achieved last season is not the limit of their ambitions.

“We want to finish in the top three and get into the play-offs,” admitted head coach Rhys Morgan.

Image courtesy of Miss Lewis from Ilkley.

“We could have been edging a bit higher when you look at the Sandal game, the Blaydon game, but we want to get into those play-offs. It is in our grasp and we will see if we can get there and put the cat among the pigeons.

“We have a tough run-in (Harrogate at home on February 28, Driffield away on March 7, Heath at home on March 21, Alnwick away on March 28 and York away on April 11) but we will do our best.”

As for the derby against Harrogate, Morgan said: “We hope to have Blake (Morgan) back, Ben (Magee) will be back, Freddie (Clarke) will be back and Harry (Harrison) will be back, while we asked Willem Johnson to play out of position at full back having just come back from Oz, and he did a job for us, while JH Johnson, who was on the bench, just keeps on rolling.

“Meanwhile, we have also signed Freddie Brown from Loughborough, who has some good wheels, so we are going all right.”

As for their derby victory, Morgan said: “We are happy with five points as Cleckheaton is always a hard place to come.

“We have been here before when we were riding high and come unstuck so I was more nervous coming into this game than I have been for a few weeks.

“I knew that they had a half-decent team and they had their centre (Tom Hainsworth) back, who is a great player, and we have a few problems of our own with Blake, Ben, Freddie and Harry.

“But I knew that the lads who came in are good players so I hoped that we would be all right, and we were, with Charles (Morgan) guiding us into the right areas, although performance wise we were a bit off the pace.

“We lost the ball too many times in contact, got sucked into an arm wrestle, which we shouldn’t have done, and took a few wrong options.

“But it was a decent margin and we got five points, and you think back to Sandal before Christmas (lost 38-26 away) where we thought that a win would push us up the table a bit and we came unstuck.

“We just didn’t turn up and we have not god a God-given right, and when Cleck scored first our next 20 minutes was really good as we dug in, took the kicks, pulled the score back and went ahead and put us in good shape for the second half, but we tailed off in the second half.

“There was a bit of inconsistency from the referee where one high shot was given and another wasn’t, but we ran in too upright so we have things to work on in the next two weeks going into the Harrogate game.

“But everybody seems to want to beat Ilkley don’t they? We got nine points up and had a kick in front of the posts and I thought ‘Kick it’ as I knew that Cleck would come back.

“It was lovely to see Louis Anderson going in for a hat-trick as he is leaving us.”

 It didn’t take Hainsworth long to make his mark on a pitch that was better than anyone had the right to deserve after all the rain, taking a short pass from fly half Dale Breakwell in the second minute to stride over after decent continuity from his team-mates.

Breakwell added the conversion, but it didn’t take Ilkley long to respond, fly half Charles Morgan popping over a penalty in the ninth minute from just outside the 10-metre line.

Breakwell had a clearance kick charged down by Tom Reavey two minutes later, the ball bouncing harmlessly into touch, and only great defence prevented the visitors from scoring a minute later.

Morgan missed a penalty from just outside the 10-metre line, home full back Dom Brambani getting great distance on a clearing kick, but Breakwell’s luck ran out in the 18th minute when another clearance kick was charged down, three Ilkley players hunting the loose ball, centre Anderson winning that race for Morgan to convert and make it 10-7 in Ilkley’s favour.

Breakwell levelled matters with a penalty from just inside the 22 in the 22nd minute, but Ilkley were almost over soon after in the left corner.

Luck was on Ilkley’s side in the 31st minute, however, when a Cleck move broke down in midfield, the ball falling kindly for Anderson to score his second, this time after a longer run, Morgan again converting, and things got worse for the hosts when referee Matt Atkinson awarded Ilkley a penalty try six minutes later, home flanker Sam Shepherd receiving a yellow card in the process.

Leading 24-10 at half-time, Ilkley had their lead reduced by a Breakwell penalty two minutes in, and Atkinson felt the need to speak to both captains before Breakwell missed a straight pot at goal from midway between the 22 and the 10-metre line in the 52nd minute.

Morgan brought the margin back to 14 points with a penalty five minutes later from just outside the 10-metre line, but back came the red and whites, Breakwell’s topspin kick causing problems in the visitors’ backline in the 59th minute for centre Joe Pearson to score, Breakwell adding the extras to make it a one-score game at 27-20.

Ilkley bagged their bonus-point try soon after via lock Jack Hamilton, Morgan’s conversion making it 34-20, but Cleck responded with a try by No 8 Brad Marsden after winning a penalty and kicking it to touch in the left-hand corner, Breakwell’s conversion attempt hitting the far post and bouncing out.

Morgan’s penalty with four minutes remaining secured Ilkley’s win and they put the icing on the cake with a hat-trick try at the death by Anderson, Morgan converting to give himself 17 points and a final score of 44-25.