Wallace hat trick puts Panthers on right track

Huddersfield Daily Examiner (Huddersfield, England), Nov 11, 2009

NEWSOME Panthers stormed into the semi-finals of the Holliday Cup after producing a brilliant attacking display to win 52-8 at fellow Second Division side Moldgreen.

The game started tentatively with both teams trying each other out and aiming to get the upper hand.

But it was Newsome who broke the deadlock when quick thinking from a 20m restart saw Ben Feehan race the length of the pitch to score.

Moldgreen hit straight back to get on the scoresheet, but the Panthers then began to dominate both in attack and defence, playing some fantastic rugby which Moldgreen found impossible to match.

And by half-time, the visitors were already almost out of sight, with tries from Phil Joseph (2), James Wallace and Marcus Clement and conversions from Feehan and Ross Studholme making it 26-4 at the break.

Moldgreen started the second half brightly and soon struck for a second time on the back of a Newsome man being sent to the sin bin.

But Newsome once again were quickly back on the front foot and produced some fantastic attacking moves.

Feehan set the ball rolling with his second before Wallace completed his hat trick and Josh Dixon and Ross Studholme scored their first tries of the season, with Feehan and Studholme adding the goals to seal a convincing win.

At the same time, Underbank Rangers booked their place in the semi-finals with a 30-20 triumph at Meltham All Blacks in front of a big derby crowd.

In the end Underbank's Fourth Division know-how just made the difference against their Division V hosts, and it was no surprise when Rangers opened the scoring after good work from their forwards.

But as the game progressed, Meltham began to make an impression and hit back through a Matthew Carter try, converted by Rob Lewis.

By half-time, however, Underbank had began to take control, restricting the All Blacks to a single Lewis penalty as they shot into an 18-8 interval advantage.

Meltham opened the second half strongly to prove their resistance was far from over as an outrageous dummy from Gareth Atkinson sent the entire defence one way and allowed him to cross the line in the opposite direction.

Unfortunately, he was unable to convert from a very difficult angle, but he made no mistake minutes later when he landed a penalty from closer to the posts to make it 18-14.

Lewis then forced his way over the line, between the posts, despite three or four Underbank players being around him, and this was an easy try for him to convert.

This, however, couldn't prove enough as Underbank finished strongly to take the honours.

Impressive for the All Blacks were Ross White, Adam Lodge and Josh Quarmby, who was voted Meltham's players' player.