Lincolnshire and South Yorkshire League

Rotherham Giants 22
Lincoln City Knights 42

Lincoln City Knights returned to winning ways with a 42-22 victory away at Rotherham Giants.

Tries from Meehal Grint, Dale Jinks, Austin Huntley, Jason Ward, and Dan Reeds put Lincoln 28-16 ahead by halftime.

Further scores from Ward and Johnny Ledger in the second half sealed the victory.

Coach Dave Moll was delighted with the performance.

“I was very pleased not only with the playing performance but with the attitude and team spirit, as without that we could have easily lost,” said Moll.

“It was a great team performance and good to see the half backs starting to gel.

“Chris Green put in a great defensive performance switching from wing to fullback, Colin Whitham was in the thick of it and played in every position in the pack for the whole 80 minutes, and Dale Jinks controlled things out wide.

Captain John Turner added:

“It was a considerably better show than last week, key players returned and everyone stepped up a gear for the most important game of the season,” said Turner.

“The match brought out our best team spirit of the season and we outplayed Rotherham in attack, the defence stuck together well and discipline was good in an excellent all round team performance.

“But there is still a lot of work to be done to secure a place in the playoffs.”

Lincoln started brightly with Ledger chipping through for Grint to touch down under the posts. Ledger added the extras.

Turner and Ledger combined to find Jinks out wide, who burst through the tackle before rounding the full back and going over for a try, which Ledger converted.

After some Rotherham pressure a kick through took an awkward bounce to give the Giants a simple converted try. In trying to prevent the score, Jim Dearing left the field injured.

Straight from the kick off the Lincoln defence forced an error to regain the ball before a high towering kick from Ledger was dropped by the Rotherham winger allowing Huntley to pounce for a score in the corner.

But Rotherham soon levelled the scores at 16-16 with two tries in four minutes.

With Rotherham on the attack, Lincoln forced an error and Ward picked up the loose ball to race the length of the field for a try, Ledger converted.

Just before halftime a neat Turner offload saw Reeds race through the gap for a try, which Ledger converted.

From the restart Rotherham attacked and poor communication at the play the ball by Lincoln’s defence gave the Giants an easy converted try.

Lincoln regained their composure and after sustained pressure, Turner released Ledger to race 30 metres for a try. Ledger converted.

Ward produced a great hooker’s try darting through three defenders to score by the posts. Ledger again converted.

Although there was no score for 20 minutes Lincoln were unlucky on several occasions with Ross O’Loughlin making good breaks and Grint and Dave Starling both held up short.

With two minutes remaining Ledger converted a penalty to complete the victory.

By Joseph Verney