Team Selection for Saturday, 22nd March 2025

# Sheffield RUFC

15. George Castledine
14. Cameron Catleugh
13. Alex Pegg
12. Will Smith
11. Chris Hooper
10. Callum Posa
9. Matty Drennan

1. Aaron Lonsdale
2. Rhodri Campbell
3. Jake Hicklin
4. Archie Crapper
5. Dom Parsons (Capt.)
6. Alex Fawdry
7. Felix Crapper
8. Ryan Burrows
Replacements: -
16. David Moores
17. Alex Reid
26. George Rogers
20. Matt Adcock
22. Elliot Fisher

Sheffield would come to this match on the back of an excellent win away at Hull Ionians last weekend, and with the same squad of twenty players. The only change being, Elliot Fisher back at scrum half and Matty Drennan on the bench.

The match kicked off in grey, dull conditions and with the threat of showers. The early exchanges were punctuated by a series of penalties given up by Sheffield, which allowed Grasshoppers to make a much better start than the home team. despite this the visitors could not get through the Sheffield defence, but took advantage of their field position to take two early penalty kicks at goal, nicely despatched by Grasshoppers fullback Josh Ree to give the visitors 6 point to nil lead. It felt like a rerun of last weekend’s match. As the match moved toward the end of the first quarter, Sheffield had begun to establish an element of domination, which was confirmed when Cameron Catleugh broke free and managed to crash through several tackles to score a first try for Sheffield. Elliot Fisher added the conversion and Sheffield sneaked into the lead at 7 points to 6.

Last week the match turned on its head when Sheffield scored three tries in six or seven minutes, and this week would follow the same script, but his time much earlier and with four tries as opposed to three. Cameron’s try was followed up with tries on twenty-four, twenty-seven and thirty minutes. The scorers were Elliot Fisher for two, and then one for George Castledine, and then with Elliot Fisher converting them all four to give the home team a 28 point to 6 lead. However, credit to Grasshoppers, with time in the half running out they were on the attack deep in Sheffield territory and centre Izaak Gosling scored just to the right of the posts. Josh Ree added the conversion and the lead was reduced to 28 points to 13 at half time.

The second half began in conditions somewhat different to the ones forecast by the Met Office. The predicted showers were a torrent of very heavy and persistent rain, which was to make playing open, running rugby somewhat of a lottery. However, two second half tries for Ryan Burrows and one more for Elliot Fisher, to give him a hat trick, and with Elliot converting one of them, Sheffield moved into a 40 point to 13 lead. However, the final ten minutes or so of the match belonged to Grasshoppers, with a score for hooker, Harry Holden, that Josh Ree could not convert, leaving the score at 40 points to 18 at the final whistle.

We now have a week’s break, with our next match being away at the early league leaders, Lymm RFC, over in Cheshire, on the 5th April.

Preston Grasshopper RFC Team: -
Forwards: - 1: Will Parkinson; 2: Danny Maher; 3: Mike Ashdown; 4: Ewan Naylor; 5: Ellis Causey; 6: Ally Murray (Capt.) 7: Rob Willett; 8: Scott Richardson
Backs: - 15: Josh Ree; 14: Sam Freeman; 10: Izaak Gosling; 12: Ed Keohane; 11: Tyler Spence; 13: Sammy Russell; 9: Rory Brand
Replacements: - 16: Wade Williams; 17: Asa Watson; 18: Hugo Castle; 19: Niall Povall; 20: Jacob Browne

Match Officials: -
Referee: - Daniel Woods.
Assistant Referees: - Simon Harrison, Jonathan Keeton
Performance Reviewer: - Geoff Blackburn.

Up-coming fixtures: -