West will take any win on the road but on paper they were the better side and should be expected to win these games. But anyone who travels with West knows better than to think that. Park, having started the season well, have been ravaged with injuries and in recent weeks have struggled, bar a good outing against Sheffield last week. It probably felt a bit like another away game with the travelling support heavily outnumbering the North Shields faithful giving the Brinkburn side something familiar at least.

The game was won again thanks to a towering performance from the forwards. With slightly less control than against Morpeth last week they dominated the Park pack and once again made sure there was plenty of good ball to play attacking rugby with. However, uncharacteristically for this season, the defence was at times poor and until the last quarter of the game didn’t make the home side work very hard for their points.

West made one change to the advertised line-up with Anth Carr coming in at prop for Carl Robinson. Stags success story Chris Martin was among the replacements.

For West it was a sloppy start, no one claimed the ball from the dropout and Percy Park collected and charged on. The referee awarded an early penalty but Turnbull missed a relatively simple kick to let the visitors off the hook. Fortunately for them their first attack was more successful with some good forward play and then handling almost sending Darren Thomas in at the corner. The early pressure paid off though when, with an overlap on the left, a tap penalty was spread wide and Martin Todd went in for the opening try.

West were lively in the loose and making good ground with the ball in hand but they were guilty of kicking good ball away at times and wasting opportunities to score more points. Davy Tighe did get the second try from a rolling maul on 19 minutes but the defence buckled under its first real test 3 minutes later when, from Park’s first real attack, number eight Langlands scored picking up from a ruck two meters out and going over too easily as far as West were concerned. A simple conversion left West only 3 points up despite having dominated the opening quarter. Missed kicks, while difficult ones, again proving costly.

The score remained 10-7 until the half but West had plenty of opportunity to stretch the lead and should have capitalised on a heavy territorial advantage. A couple of close lineouts were wasted and some sloppy play at crucial times, together with some gritty home defence kept them out.

The second half started as eventfully as the first with this time West getting immediately on the attack. Some surging runs moved play in to the 22 and when Phil Wallis looked for a gap close to the line he lost his footing and was caught high by Griffiths who was unfortunate to be shown a yellow card. The West fly-half recovered to slot over the penalty but the additional 3 point lead only lasted 2 minutes as Turnbull nudged over a 30 metre penalty.

The next five minutes were to be crucial and certainly belonged to a combination of Todd and first Mark Cholmondeley. The prop collected a kick on half way and threw an outrageous dummy before setting off on a charge down the wing. Several phases later Todd was diving over in the corner for his second try and he followed that with a superb piece of defensive work to turn the ball over and thanks to some quick recycling and ball through the hands Darren Thomas raced in from half way for another score. Both tries were again unconverted but West had a healthy 23-10 lead and finally seemed to have the game under control.

But Park came bouncing back and their best attacking spell of the match thus far saw them work an overlap on the left and send in Clarkson for a try on 55 minutes. Only eight points down the hosts were back in the game but West again responded quickly. The rolling maul had proven almost unstoppable all day and Paul Rudd was the beneficiary on 59 minutes after another forward drive from a 5 metre lineout. A fifth conversion drifted wide this time from the boot of James Masshedar.

The final 20 minutes belonged to the home team but saw West finally wake up in defence. The tackling improved and despite sustained pressure close to the line Park came away with nothing as time after time the door was slammed shut and ball ended up either spilt or turned over.

It’s hard to criticise an away league win for West, especially the first one of the season, but truth be told this was a poor Percy Park side and West must be more clinical and build more of a total early on to put these games away. On another day the opposition might have gotten back in and stole the game against the territorial and possession advantages.

Still a third win in a row is definitely something to take encouragement from and another five tries scored can only be good news. Just need some of them to be under the posts to get some confidence for the kickers! It does finally seem to be coming together for West but nothing can be taken for granted yet. Let’s hope for more of the same next week against Driffield and hopefully a further climb up the table.


West: Masshedar, Thomas, Edwards, Hodgson, Todd, Wallis, Tighe, Cholmondeley, Cullinane, Carr, Rudd, Davies, D Boatman (Tones), J Boatman, Sawyer.
Rep not used: Martin

Tries: Todd 2, Tighe, Thomas, Rudd
Pen: Wallis

Percy Park: Singleton, Luke Casey, Walton, Griffiths, Clarkson, Turnbull, Davison, Neill, Donald, Biggins, Fiddler, Davidson, Dunn, Dixon (capt), Langlands
Reps: Kalbraier, Liam Casey, Ponton

Pens: West 8 Percy Park 13