YORK KNIGHTS 48 SHEFFIELD EAGLES 8
GAVIN WILSON, LNER Community Stadium, Sunday
YORK secured a fifth consecutive victory with a convincing performance against a misfiring Sheffield, consolidating their play-off position in blustery conditions.
Knights coach Mark Applegarth made just one change from the team that beat Bradford two weeks ago, with Ben Jones-Bishop returning to face his former club in place of Scott Galeano (dead leg). Prop Brenden Santi was making a 150th career appearance.
New signings Jenson Windley and Martyn Reilly both made the debuts for Sheffield, who suffered a disappointing loss at home to Hunslet last week.
York got off to a flying start, opening up a 16-0 lead in the first quarter, and were already ten points to the good before Sheffield got a proper hold of the ball.
Eddie Battye fumbled the ball in the very first tackle and former Eagle Jones-Bishop crossed from the resulting scrum after just 60 seconds. Liam Harris added the touchline conversion.
Matty Dawson-Jones dropped Harris’ high kick, and the Knights’ mercurial half dropped a shoulder and strolled over untouched down the left flank in the next set.
Harris then scored his second just minutes later with a mirror-image of a try down the right flank, this time adding the conversion.
To their credit Sheffield refused to give in and made a contest of the second quarter, as both teams battled the strong swirling winds.
They got on the scoreboard just before the break when the ball was worked quickly out to the left, creating enough space for Dawson-Jones to spin and score. Jack Walker missed the touchline conversion.
Sheffield reduced the lead to eight points just after the break when debutant Windley scored, the on-loan half from Castleford latching on to a well-placed grubber kick.
Sam Cook was unfortunate to be sin-binned for a high tackle on Blake Broadbent as he slipped returning the ball from the kick-off, but the Knights refused to panic and even extended their lead with two further scores while down to twelve men.
Jones-Bishop claimed his second with a well-worked move to the left before Aussie prop Jack Martin crashed over, with Harris converting both.
Joe Brown cleaned up a loose pass to score on the hour mark, and Cook made amends for his earlier indiscretion by supporting up the middle to cross soon afterwards.
Jones-Bishop then completed his second hat-trick in as many league games, before centre Oli Field rounded off the scoring by grounding Ata Hingano’s wonderful round-the-back offload.
The Knights now focus their attentions on a huge week culminating in the 1895 Cup final against Featherstone at Wembley, while Sheffield will look to get their season back on track at Barrow in two weeks.
GAMESTAR: Ben Jones-Bishop may have scored a hat-trick against his old club, but Liam Harris was at his blistering best, pulling all the strings in attack.
GAMEBREAKER: The Knights raced into a 16-0 lead in just 12 minutes and never looked back.
MATCHFACTS
KNIGHTS
36 Toa Mata’afa
2 Joe Brown
3 Kieran Buchanan
20 Oli Field
34 Ben Jones-Bishop
6 Ata Hingano
7 Liam Harris
8 Jack Martin
9 Paul McShane
17 Ukuma Ta’ai
11 Jesse Dee
12 Connor Bailey
13 Jordan Thompson
Subs (all used)
10 Brenden Santi
19 Sam Cook
22 Jaques O’Neill
31 Kieran Hudson
Tries: Jones-Bishop (1, 48, 68), Harris (6, 12), Martin (54), Brown (60), Cook (64), Field (71)
Goals: Harris 6/9
Sin bin: Cook (46) – high tackle
EAGLES
26 Jack Walker
25 Jayden Billy
3 Kris Welham
32 Darius Carter
5 Matty Dawson-Jones
13 Titus Gwaze
35 Jenson Windley
8 Eddie Battye
9 Corey Johnson
10 Tyler Dickinson
24 Oliver Roberts
36 Jack Billington
30 Martyn Reilly
Subs (all used)
14 Reiss Butterworth
15 Evan Hodgson
16 Blake Broadbent
20 Lewis Peachey
Tries: Dawson-Jones (36), Windley (44)
Goals: Walker 0/2
SCORING SEQUENCE: 6-0, 10-0, 16-0, 16-4; 16-8, 22-8, 28-8, 32-8, 38-8, 42-8, 48-8
Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match:
Knights: Liam Harris; Eagles: Titus Gwaze
Penalty count: 3-5
Half-time: 16-4
Referee: Cameron Worsley
