Hornsea got back to winning ways on Saturday with a thumping nine-try romp over Stocksbridge.
Straight from the off, Hornsea showed their intent with the forwards trying to play a fast ruck game against their heavier opponents, and the backs looking to go wide when ball in hand.
It was Hornsea’s leading try scorer, Andy Finch, who opened the scoring. Adie Wadforth made a break, chipped over and collected himself before kicking again, with Finch winning the race to the line to touch down. Tim Roberts converted, making it 7-0.
The impressive Liam Tudor Bateman got the next score with a dazzling 40-yard break as he proved too elusive to stop, making it 12-0.
On the half-hour mark, Finch got his second try when he was on the end of some crisp handling by the backs to score out wide, extending the lead to 17-0.
Just five minutes later, Finch was at it again as he completed his hat-trick. Joe Temple made a strong break and good hands by Roberts gave Finch the space to round his man and touch down. Roberts converted, taking the score to 24-0.
Just before the half-time whistle, with Stocksbridge struggling to deal with Hornsea’s high-tempo game, David Ashbridge scored following a powerful 30-yard break. Roberts converted, making it 31-0.
Hornsea added four more tries in the second half as they continued to dominate, albeit Stocksbridge’s continued hard efforts.
Matt Smallwood got the first try after the restart as he ghosted in out wide to score, bringing the score to 36-0.
Tudor Bateman then got his second try of the match as he sliced through the Stocksbridge defence to score, with Roberts converting well, making it 43- 0.
Hornsea’s dominance upfront gave Wadforth space to break on the hour mark, who then passed to captain Ed Webster who galloped 30 yards to score a fine try, increasing the lead to 48-0.
Wadforth capped another fine game at scrum-half with a try of his own after some good interplay by the backs then saw Wadforth hit the line at pace to score under the posts. Roberts converted, taking the score to 55-0.
With five minutes remaining, Stocksbridge scored a deserved consolation try as they crashed over from close range to ensure they weren’t nilled.
A fine all-round performance by Hornsea had Captain Ed Webster smiling at full time.
Webster said: “We played some good rugby and it was nice to score so many tries. We know we are going to have to keep winning to keep this top two spot, but I’m confident if we can have good availability for our remaining four league games, there is no reason why we can’t do this.”
