Rugby Union round-up: Tigers stay top after big win as Sheffield draw

Jamie Broadley of Sheffield Tigers 1st XV

Sheffield RUFC travelled north to mid-table Ilkley where they were held to their second draw of the season. The match ended 14-14 - leaving the Abbeydale-based side fifth in the table with their hopes of play-off contention dwindling.

Sheffield are on the road again this Saturday, travelling to face Stockport in another mid-table clash.

Sheffield Tigers, meanwhile, continued their dominance of the National League Three North with a pummelling 80-12 victory over third-placed Firwood Waterloo. The Tigers’ website hailed the game as ‘the Valentine’s Day massacre’ and goes on to describe it as “possibly one of the best displays the Tiger Dome has ever seen”.

The result leaves the Dore Moor side comfortably ten points clear at the top of the table. Thiu Barnard, Tigers’ coach, said: “I laugh every time I see that scoreline. I cannot believe we won that easily.

“I thought we were outstanding; everything just clicked, everything we did was good. I think we have just been waiting for this to happen and finally it has.

“For the first ten minutes we did not touch the ball, it was all defending, then a switch went off and it all changed.

“I have been waiting for that kind of performance the whole year and a half I have been at the Tigers, a year and a half of work just suddenly paid off.

“I think the worst part of the performance is that we left four or five tries out there on the pitch, so can you imagine what the score would have been if we had taken those chances?

“We conceded through lapses in concentration which is something we will work on for the next game.”

Tigers will make the short journey to Huddersfield this weekend, which on paper should be a routine victory.

Barnard added: “I am planning for the game as though we are playing a top four team again this week. Everything we do we need to do professionally and just stay grounded.

“Huddersfield is a tough place to go to, we only just won there last year so we have to be clinical and have to be patient.”