Preston Grasshoppers 22 Sheffield Tigers 14: ​Hoppers’ Tiger feat hailed by Longson

Although nine points behind after half-an-hour, they stuck to their task against a Sheffield Tigers side which Hoppers assistant coach Josh Longson said were playing their best rugby for a long time – as evidenced by their four successive wins up to Saturday.

Of his own side, Longson added: “We always knew it was going to be tight, but we were well in the game at half-time and, overall, controlled it well.

“The scrum gave us a good platform and we played in the right areas. It was good to get five league points and deny them a bonus point.”

It took almost 20 minutes to give the scoreboard operator any work to do, with Hoppers unable to profit from a long spell in the Tigers’ 22, although Zeph Maher was within inches of a kick-and-chase try.

But they eventually struck first, with Matt Sturgess going over following some good interplay in the back line.

Sheffield responded with two quick tries by Miles Dodsworth and Ben Crowe, both converted by Tom O’Brien.

Having had to start without two of their influential backs in Sam Freeman and Mark Jennings, Hoppers also lost top try-scorer Jacob Browne to injury inside 30 minutes.

But a break by scrum-half Rory Brand gave them the foothold for a line-out drive which brought a try for hooker Sam Kyle-Clay to make it 10-14 at the break.

TIgers had gambled by leaving their first-choice props on the bench and Hoppers certainly had the upper hand in the first-half scrums. When Sheffield changed their front row, things improved, but overall the hosts still impressed at the set-piece.

Ten minutes into the second half, a brilliant 50/20 kick by Josh Ree gave them the platform for a driving maul which set up a try for Ree himself, to take the lead again.

And it was another line-out drive which produced the match-clinching, bonus-point try, converted by Sammy Russell, to round off a club “clean sweep” with all their sides victorious on the day.