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It was a perfect afternoon for rugby at Brinkburn and while the rugby on show wasn’t of the highest quality it was a competitive game and provided 6 tries and a fair share of entertainment for those watching.
West began in strong fashion, opening the scoring with just 4 minutes on the clock. Davy Tighe, back at his favoured scrum-half position, darted over from the base of a five metre scrum for the game’s first try.
Old Crocs fought back though, and marshalled by the boot of stand off Andy Petre they pushed West back into their own 22. A slice of good fortune gave them the lead when as an attack looked to break down, scrum half James Mallard chipped ahead, only to see the ball bounce high, hit the cross bar to loop over the covering Neil Howe to leave Mallard able to collect and touch down under the posts. Petre added the conversion and a 19th minute penalty to further increase the lead.
The visiting forwards were causing some problems with some good running in the loose and a well organised rolling maul. They were also being helped by some loose tackling but fortunately for West the continuity was not quite there to allow Crocs to totally dominate the game.
After their positive start West had drifted out of the game but as the half drew to a close they did manage some territory and Paul Moss was able to add a penalty to close the gap – he had missed a previous effort on the half hour.
Referee Nigel Cartwright needed a touch of the Gez magic at half-time to loosen off a tight muscle or two, but he was fit to resume after the break and saw Crocs start the half in perfect fashion with a try after just two minutes. A rolling maul generated the position and the West defence was all at sea to allow a simple run in for centre Luke Bartle. Petre added the conversion to give the visitors that 20-8 lead and the message from the sidelines was clear. Pin West back and hold on to the lead.
West, to their credit, didn’t panic and despite some poor decision making at times, grafted their way back into the game. The defence improved and a switch of Gavin Painter to fly-half seemed to freshen things up.
Greg Edwards somehow forced his way over the line on 57 minutes after a quick tap penalty by Howe looked to have gone wrong but Edwards came inside and drove two men back to touch down and leave Tom Dixon to add the conversion. With the lead trimmed to 5 points and still plenty of time to go West grew in confidence and began to play with some more control.
An unusually quiet Jonny Boatman returned to his usual driving running and was rewarded with a try on 65 minutes. Tighe again broke on the short side from a scrum and fed inside to Boatman, whose arcing run was enough to beat the covering defence. Dixon couldn’t add the conversion so the scores were tied.
With Crocs having adopted a ‘protect-the-lead’ approach for the most of the half it seemed a difficult ask to now return to attacking mode and look to win the game. And so it proved. West scored the pick of the tries to take the lead on 71 minutes. Weegram, on his return to first team action after a break to concentrate on his boxing, was fed the ball about 40 metres out and having brushed off his opposite winger his cut inside the full-back to complete a great finish and mark his return in style. Dixon added the conversion and a penalty four minutes later to seal the win.
In the end if was a comfortable margin of victory but the result was in doubt for much longer than the scoreline may suggest. Still, the win keeps West’s faint hopes of a play-off spot alive and with Sheffield Tigers calling off their game with Rovers the points gap is closed slightly, for the moment at least.
West will need to play better in the games to come if they want to finish with three straight wins but the promotion hunt is still on!
West: Hare, Todd, Edwards, Howe, Painter, Moss (Weegram), Tighe, Carr, A Dixon, Robinson (Norris), Rudd (Henderson), T Dixon, Miller, D Boatman, J Boatman
Tries: Tighe, Edwards, J Boatman, Weegram
Cons: Dixon 2
Pens: Moss, Dixon
Old Crossleyans: Holmes, Wainwright, Smith, Bartle, Hill, Petre, Mallard, Day, Wheale, McGrath, Horne, Wood, Riaz, Thomas, Hill
Reps: Davies, Clayton, Hinchcliffe
Tries: Mallard, Bartle
Cons: Petre 2
Pens: Petre 2
Sinbin: Mallard
Referee: Nigel Cartwright [Durham Society]
Related Links:
Team For Crocs
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Author: West Park Allotment
Date: 04-03-07 10:51
Fair match report El Pedro. Lot of handling errors but a decent win against good opposition and specially when we were without Young and Myers.
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Author: MikeyBoy
Date: 05-03-07 09:23
it was really encouraging that we managed to fight back after falling behind. Traditonally, we tend to panic when playing from behind but we didn't do that on saturday which was really good.
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Author: West Park Allotment
Date: 05-03-07 10:05
Some good stuff at times and two sides trying to play rugby. Despite Driffields recent results it will be a hard game next week so I trust the lads won't rest on the laurels and get stuck in at training this week.
.
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Author: El Pedro
Date: 05-03-07 12:23
for those interested [geeks] like me....i looked up some of the technical disputes from saturday's game.
- drop out going out on the full
referee was correct after some debate - a scrum back is the correct decision
Quote:
13.14 DROP OUT GOES DIRECTLY INTO TOUCH
The ball must land in the field of play. If it is kicked directly into
touch, the opposing team has three choices:
To have another drop out, or
To have a scrum at the centre of the 22-metre line, and they throw
in the ball, or
To accept the kick. If they accept the kick, the throw in is on the
22-metre line.
- penalty kick for touch goes dead in goal
on both occassions a 22 drop out was given but it should have been an option of the scrum back or a 22 drop out. [and i'm pretty sure the option wasn't given as some players were asking for it but was refused].
the only time a kick going dead is NOT a scrum back is for an unsuccessful kick at goal or a drop-goal.
Quote:
22.8 BALL KICKED DEAD IN IN-GOAL
If a team kicks the ball through their opponents’ in-goal, into
touch-in-goal or on or over the dead ball line, except by an
unsuccessful kick at goal or attempted dropped goal, the defending
team has two choices:
To have a drop out,
or
To have a scrum at the place where the ball was kicked and they
throw in.
but before anyone says....i thought mr cartwright had a decent game on saturday, kept the game flowing as much as possible. this message is not a slant on him at all....none of the decisions affecting anything just there was some dispute among the spectators so thought i'd clear it up!
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Author: MikeyBoy
Date: 05-03-07 14:00
there's been so many little technical things that refs have got wrong this season.
There were so many people shouting on "scrum back" when that happened twice on saturday. A couple of their players confidently replied "not from a penalty" but I think that was obviously less to do with their knowledge of the laws and more to do with the fact that the decision was going in their favour.
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NEXT FIXTURE
Hull Ionians
VENUE
Friendly - Home kick off 3.00
DATE
Saturday August 23 rd
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