Lady luck deserts Aire in tight defeat to table-topping Castleford

Aireborough suffered at the hands of lady luck on Saturday in a vexing defeat that left the players and Head Coach, Si Davies, pulling their hair out in frustration. For large parts of the game Aireborough belied their lowly league position and had their table-topping visitors on the back foot, but were unable to put enough points on the board when on top and were unable to keep Castleford at bay whilst defending.

Aireborough started the match with another changed squad with injuries sustained in the derby defeat to Old Otliensians last week forcing Davies to make changes to the second row and opt for size in the pack to counter the renowned physicality of Castleford – with expectant father Adam Jackson and new signing Tom Pendriss selected in the engine room.

The increased size and power of the Aire pack was evident at the first scrum, shoving Castleford backwards in an impressive display of strength that would continue throughout the match and would result in two penalty tries and one yellow card for the Castleford loosehead prop.

The first penalty try came after sustained pressure in the Cas ’22 after a strong start by the home side. Clever thinking from fly-half Nick Holdsworth sent winger Rob Johnson hurtling after a grubber kick and although he beat his opposite number to the bouncing ball was held up over the line for a 5m scrum to the hosts. Aireborough’s dominant pack took up the reins and forced a number of scrum penalties before the referee’s patience wore too thin and a penalty try was awarded – with Castleford also reduced to 14 men with the referee sin-binning the offending loosehead prop.

With new changes to the law of penalty tries automatically resulting in a seven-point score, Nick Holdsworth was robbed of the chance to add the extras from the conversion and Aire were ahead 7-0.

Castleford came into the match following the score as they got to grips with the wind and rain and their hosts, gaining a foothold in the match as the two teams wrestled it out in the Nunroyd mud. Ill-discipline from the hosts gifted Castleford two kickable penalties with Tidy, their little ginger talisman, converting both opportunities to reduce the Aire lead to 7-6.

With Cas up to their full complement of 15 players, they proceeded to turn the screw and increased their lead at the half-hour mark with an unconverted try following a lineout and rolling maul. With Captain Ollie Catherall’s rallying call under the sticks reverberating in their eardrums, Aireborough bounced back well in the final 10 minutes of the half and were again on the front foot in the Cas ’22 – scrummaging their way toward the Cas try line.

However, the dominance in the scrum was, at times, also a hindrance as the bobbling ball was hard to control at the back of the fast-moving scrum and Aireborough were unable to convert the pressure into points and Cas survived the first half and went into the halftime break 7-11 up.

HT: Aireborough 7 v Castleford 11

Aireborough received the kickoff in the second half, playing down the slight hill and into Aireborough corner, looking to overturn the 5 point deficit and inflict a first defeat of the season on their visitors.

When teams are down at the wrong end of the table they need the slight (or preferably heavy) touch of lady lucks hand; unfortunately she was out of town this weekend as one rather fortunate try and one well-worked try, both unconverted, early in the second half for the visitors seemed to kill off Aireborough as they found themselves 7-21 down with 20 minutes to play.

The first Castleford try came from an Aireborough scrum – which Aireborough won but the ball shot out of the back of the scrum and, after a bit of bobbling about in the Aire red zone and some good pressure from the advancing Castleford horde resulted in the Cas flanker touching the ball down over the try line. The second Cas try was a well-worked effort with the Castleford fly half intelligently spotting space on the top wing to kick into space and their winger winning the foot race against the covering Thomas Copsey to touch down in the corner.

Aireborough showed their character and pride and picked themselves up for the final 20 minutes and again put on a late show and nearly pulled off another comeback, similar to the opening game of the season against Northallerton.

Aireborough’s pack continued to dominate the scrums and began disrupting the Cas lineout. The pressing defence hemmed Castleford into their own half before Aire stole the ball at the breakdown and gained possession. Aire went through the phases and Cas were back down to 14 men after continued cynical infringing impeded Aire’s progress.

Adam Jackson, as big as one of Pizza House Company’s (http://www.pizzahousecompany.co.uk/) large pizzas with a skill set as varied as their offering of toppings, crashed over from a rolling maul shortly afterwards to reduce the deficit to 12-21. Ollie Catherall was just wide with a tricky conversion attempt.

Aireborough’s tails were up and continued to pressure Castleford in their own half. More scrums in the Cas ’22 followed and it was no surprise when, following further scrum infringements from the visitors in their own red zone, that another penalty try was awarded to Aireborough. Aireborough had reduced the deficit to 19-21with two minutes to play.

With the kickoff received deep in the Aire half, the Aireborough wolf pack began the arduous trek up the pitch, looking to ‘wolf’ the ball 75m up the field. After a couple of phases the ball squirmed out of the rook and, following another bad bounce, Castleford touched the ball down for a converted try with the last play which robbed Aire of a losing bonus point.

FT: Aireborough 19 v Castleford 28

Despite the result, the performance for large parts of the match was promising and Davies must be happy with how the scrum demolished a larger pack. The return of Charlie Middleton was a big plus for the squad – who must pick themselves up and prepare for the short trip to Old Modernians next week.

Man of the Match: Adam Jackson – another solid performance from ‘the fridge’ who is always a wrecking ball in attack and solid in defence. Well worthy of his try from two yards and knocked back his orange and water like he was knocking back a Castleford prop.
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Brown Ale Moment: He might be dependable on the pitch but his choice of music is anything but on his iPhone – Christopher Chapman’s opening gambit of REM’s ‘Everybody Hurts’ wasn’t quite to the likening of Si Davies following this kick-in-the-teeth defeat.