Sheffield made a fast start from the kick off, pressing the Hoppers’ 22 with powerful attacks which kept the visitors penned inside their own half for much of the first quarter of the match. A long clearance kick finally took them into their hosts’ 22 where some quick handling from a line-out had Full Back Kevin Brown gliding through the defence to score by the posts making the conversion by Ben Pearson a simple task.

The lead was quickly reduced by a Sheffield penalty but the home side were then reduced to fourteen when their number 8, Burrows, was shown a yellow card for a dangerous tackle.

Hoppers looked to make good the advantage with soaring kick, chase and tackle from Jacob Browne but in the ensuing attack it was their turn to be shown yellow and Sam Gale went to the sin bin.

Sheffield then capitalized on their numbers and immediately moved up the field where their prop, Whitney, collected the ball out on the wing and cruised through the open space to score next to the posts. The conversion from Fisher was good and the teams went to the break with the score at 10 – 7 reflecting a fairly equal contest.

The second half was a different story. From the kick off the home side pressed into the Preston Red Zone and after just ten minutes added another seven points.

Hoppers replied with a try of their own from Ben Dorrington who broke from the scrum to cross the line. However, this was quickly countered by a third score by Sheffield which although the referee had decided the ball had been held up, was awarded when his assistant confirmed the try was completed.

Despite another three points from a penalty, Hoppers could not add to their tally and Sheffield dominated the final quarter of the match with two further tries and two more disallowed attempts which sealed their win at 38 – 17.

Assistant Coach Dan Orwin was pleased by the effort of his team:

‘I’m really happy with the first half performance, they put us under quite a lot of pressure but defensively, we were sharp and well-connected and the line speed was good. On sixty minutes we were still in touch with just three points between us but we made too many errors in the last twenty which hurt us and we couldn’t close the game out’

Preston Grasshoppers made the trip to Sheffield to face a side that, like themselves, had been newly promoted to National League 2 at the end of last season and, boosted by their five-point win over Huddersfield last week, they looked to build on that confident performance.