-

The visitors brought a huge streetwise pack across the rain-lashed Pennines and played to their strengths.

Their first three tries – two of them while home skipper Scott Richardson was in the sinbin – came from line-out drives, touched down by hooker Rhodri Campbell.

But they showed how they could put good attacking phases together for winger Chris Hooper to claim the bonus-point score.

Under siege for much of the first half, Hoppers scored the try of the day in the 55th minute when a blistering run from his own half by Jenson Hamilton put Rob Willetts over.

Restricting Sheffield to a Callum Posa penalty in the last half-hour, Hoppers had the final word when Cam Wilkinson rounded off a good build-up for a try well converted by Alex Ward.

Greg Smith had earlier kicked a penalty and conversion.

Unfortunately, Ward’s kick was the final play of the game, leaving Hoppers to rue familiar – mistakes: crucial line-out failures, an awful penalty count and unforced handling errors.

Assistant coach Danny Maher said: “We showed Sheffield too much respect in the first half,” he said. “We stepped up in the second half and punched above our weight.

“We called for physicality and I’m proud of the way the lads answered that. “The first-half penalty count killed us – you can’t play without the ball, so you’ve got to look after the ball when you’ve got it.

“But with the ball, we looked dangerous and got across the gain line. The ability is there.”

He also felt Hoppers defended well for much of the battle against a side with “a big pack and a good line-out”.

Sadly, there were more injury woes for Hoppers, with replacements Rory Brand and Ben O’Ryan both lasting less than 10 minutes.

But at least there is a Saturday off next weekend to get some of the walking wounded back.

The win lifted Sheffield to second in National League Two North due to the postponement of Leeds Tykes’ visit to Fylde, while Hoppers slipped a place to seventh.