Pools were forced into two late changes when Lewis Humble, who has been in terrific early season form, was forced to pull out after suffering a hamstring injury during the warm up, being replaced in the centre by back row specialist, Suli Tubuna, and the veteran Ray Hughes was called into the front row for the unavailable Steve Ward. Winger Richard Picknett was also given his first senior start on the wing after several impressive performances for the second team.

The first half was a tense affair with neither team stamping their authority firmly on the game, with Pools repeatedly kicking poorly against a strong wind to allow Medicals to exert early pressure on the home defence. Pools started to use their experienced forwards to make good ground up field but, unfortunately, seemed to always lose possession at critical moments to allow the Medicals stand off to clear down field. However, a miscued clearance allowed Tubuna to take a high ball with the centre showing his experience to seek support of his forwards. Scrum half, Tom King, cleverly released Frankie Coulson to power through before the centre was tackled 20 meters out. Quick recycling saw the ball worked wide to left winger Picknett to score his first try at senior level in the corner.

Medicals had the chance to reduce the home lead following a high tackle from Tubuna, but the ball was struck poorly and went wide. Pools used their forwards to continually frustrate Medicals from having possession to release their youthful backs, with Mick Hall, Andy Palmer, Dave Ryan producing some strong runs around the fringes. Close to half time, Medicals secured possession and worked the ball wide before kicking through, but were thwarted by excellent cover defence from the enigmatic Stewart Hind. Not having done enough to stop this attack, the second row then stole possession to allow any danger to be cleared for the final action of the first half.

If the first half was judged as an even contest, Pools run away with some dynamic rugby at the beginning of the second half, orchestrated by the man of the match, Tom King. Coulson made an early break through the middle of the visitors defence, only to be stopped by a last gasp tackle, which allowed the ball to be cleared to touch. A training ground move saw Hall peel away at the back of the line out to charge at the opposition stand off, with the ball quickly worked through King and Adam Redhead for Suliano to stroll through for a try, converted well by Patrick Wilson. From the kick off, Pools put in a series of forward drives with Brett Cullaine, Carl Hanson and Alan Brown prominent, before King saw some space to kick over the top and collect the ball to score close to the posts.

Medicals were hanging on grimly, with a flowing move involving Brown and King stopped just short of the line. To their credit, Medicals tried to come back at Pools but an attempted kick through was collected by Picknett, who passed onto Wilson to clear the danger. Kris Webster was introduced into the front row for the injured Hughes, who had given a sterling performance, and Webster immediately put pressure on a clearance to touch which was palmed back by Cullaine into the hands of the rampaging Brown, who powered over the line to score. King then put the icing on the cake with some clever play allowing both Suliano and Brown to score to give the home team a comfortable 34-0 score with just 10 minutes to play. At this stage, the home team relaxed and Medicals also appeared to step up a gear, to run in two tries through their inside centre and flanker, with the second try being converted with the final kick of the game.

This was another impressive performance against one of the early season favorites' in the league to make all other teams aware of Pools intentions and ambitions for this season. Richard Picknett had a good first performance with a try and some good tackles against his opposite number, with Hall and Ryan the pick of an impressive forward effort.

A further boost to the home team was the introduction of club talisman Ian Bond back into the team in the second half, and his experience will be a great benefit to some of the younger players around him.

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