Wheatley Hills fall at the first hurdle

Injury-hit Wheatley made a lively start and it was against the run of play when the visitors took a 7-0 lead.

Playing down the slope Wheatley continued to enjoy the better of the exchanges but they lacked a cutting edge in the final third and all that they had to show for their efforts was a penalty by centre Ian Barker.

The Doncaster side continued to take the game to Sheffield but both Barker and Mark Sanderson failed to convert penalty kicks and they fell further behind when the Sheffield kicker showed how it was done when making it 10-3.

Though only a converted try away from levelling, Wheatley never looked like doing so and Sheffield put the game out of reach touching down for a late try after an attempted clearance by the home side took a cruel deflection off a defender.

Doncaster Phoenix romped to a 54-3 win over Lancashire League Division Two side Bury in their Junior Vase first round tie at Castle Park.

Coach Dave Senior said: "It was a very good performance.

"They were unbeaten and had been piling up a lot of points and it looked like they could play a bit, but we closed them down really well and we didn't give them any room for manoeuvre and were in their faces whenever they had the ball.

"We also played well when we had the ball and with the forwards getting us on the front foot we scored some good tries."

Tom Elliott set up the club's first try when he broke up the middle and then floated out a long pass to brother Tim who was playing on the wing.

James Oakley, Mark Jasinowski, Dan Morris and Simon Greenslade were also among the try-scorers.

Thornensians, beaten by Doncaster rivals in the league the previous week, also booked their place in the second round with a convincing 34-5 win over Leeds Corinthians at Coulman Road.

Adwick made visiting Stanley Rodillians work hard for their 13-8 Yorkshire Silver Trophy first round tie at Carcroft.

The Doncaster side, who were playing only their second game at their new temporary home, took an early lead with a penalty by full-back Jamie Banks.

But the Wakefield-based side capitalised on Adwick's inexperienced back division to run in two unconverted tries to lead 10-3 at the break.

Adwick battered away at the Stanley line after the break and closed the gap to just two points midway through the half with an unconverted try by prop Neil Chambers from a forward drive.

The visitors gave themselves more breathing space by converting a penalty after an Adwick player was adjudged to have obstructed an opponent chasing a kick to the line.

n Weekend preview in Friday's paper.