Official West Hartlepool RFC

Can anyone remember the last time a Durham County squad did not contain a single player from either West or Rovers? Sad indication of rugby in the town.

not necessarily - it all comes down to selection you know ;-);-)

WPA,

The county set up in recent times has always been a case of if your face fits.....

The other thing that annoys me about things at the moment is that it is supposed to be a Durham County Clubs side but most of the squad is dominated by uni lads.

In my own personal opinion County Representational rugby means very little these days anyway, bloody hell these days you have to stick with them for 5 games before they'll give you a cap.

I reckon the Hartlepool & District Clubs between them could put a squad together that would beat any Durham County side.

to true, couldn't agree more. and i'm not trying taking anything away from the acheivments past OR present but a county tie mean't a hell of a lot more than it does now

So what is the county squad?

:-)

Author: Roverman
Date: 05-05-06 20:28

I reckon the Hartlepool & District Clubs between them could put a squad together that would beat any Durham County side.


Given that the university team is likely to be quite good and the County team has 3 national league clubs to pick from I have my doubts as to whether that would be the case.

Mind you I agree with your sentiments about the value of county rugby these days. Professionalism has killed it off in my opinion as the whole concept was very much about amateur rugby. Not that this is a bad thing. Times change.

I am not saying the selection is unfair

Techlad,

I think you don't realise the quality of players H&D have.

If they were allowed to train as a squad as the county are they could be a match for the County.

Available you have the likes of:

Lambert, Kerr, Lilley, Humble, Gareth Foreman, Brian Foreman, Turner, Walton, Masshedar, Lithgo, Gav Robinson, Cullinane, Sawyer, Dixon, Howard, Davies, Power, Simon Hall, Steve Wallis, Steve Jones, Appleyard, not to mention most of the Horden pack.

and this is just a rough list of names that came to mind while I was typing, I'm sure that even though these players come from N2E and below that put together as a unit they would be a match for many of the Darlington and Mowden lads, some of whom hail from Hartlepool in the first place and have just been lured there by cash and a higher standard of rugby.

Oh and just so this discussion doesn't get going again - I'm not advocating a merger of all Hartlepool Clubs, just merely stating we have loads of talent in the town.

How the heck did I forget to name Aaron Myers in that last post?

Probably cos you dont know what your are talking about. The most effective players for West this season have been Rudd and the Boatmans and you also havent mentioned Anth Carr or Hodgson.

And what abiout Tighe!!!!!!



Post Edited (07-05-06 13:42)

Here lies the problem of selection for any representative team. It would be impossible to pick a town side that everyone would agree upon, never mind at county level.

However such a debate during the summer could atleast keep some of us boring old ****'* amused any offerings.

i'll pick it for you, apologies when i don't know names.

15. west
14. west
13. foreman
12. old boy rutherford
11. west
10. tighe.
9 foreman
8. sawyer
7. the skinny one who jumps lines for rovers.
6. rovers 6 who plays centre too.
5. rovers skipper
4. rudd? (west bald and blonde plays backrow sometimes)
3. Carlo (west)
2. Cullinane
1. run out of ideas

simple;but a viable county side? don't make me laugh. if the players in hartlepool and district we're the best they'd be playing at mowden and darlo. Might get close to winning ne2 with that team

15. Darren Thomas
14. Chris Lambert
13. David Grand
12. Peter Hodgson
11. Martin Todd
10. Davy Tighe/Andrew Turner
9. Gareth Foreman/Davy Tighe
8. Craig Gilmour
7. Andrew Temple
6. Jonny Boatman
5. Mark Power
4. Michael Thubron/Dan Palmer
3. Carlo Robinson
2. Tim Sawyer/Dixon
1. Michael Thompson


Probably a bit biased :-D



Post Edited (07-05-06 22:19)

My take on the County team was clear. We, as all clubs I expect, were invited to put forward players that we felt were suitable to be considered for " County rugby". Some clubs did not put forward players, I assume you did and HR did ?. We at Sunderland put forward three and Tony Irwin was picked. I am not sure how the selection process works but I do know as you must all know that there is a strong Hpool contingent involved !

Yeah,

Some Hartlepool players got phone calls to ask them to play for the county Sturday lunchtime as they were preparing to play in the Oakes game at Rovers.

I think Forman and Power from Rovers were in the squad.

As far as a Hartlepool side goes:

15. Thomas (West)
14. Lambert (West)
13. Grand (Horden)
12. Rutherford (Rovers)
10. Turner (Horden)
11. Lilley (Rovers)
9. Forman (Rovers)
1. Howard (Tech)
2. Dixon (Tech)/Sawyer (West)
3. Cullinane (West)
4. Hind (Old Boys)
5. Power (Rovers)
6. J Boatman (West)
7. A Myers (West) / S Jones (Tech)
8. White (Rovers) - I know he's gone home now! so Jona gets to stay in the team.

That team seems harsh as well because there are lads from Seaton like Lithgo who are good enough to be in there as well.

The reason Hartlepool teams have struggled is because players have followed money and ambitions of playing at higher levels (or just the opportunity to be spotted) and the town teams have missed out on the likes of Frankie Coulson, Chunky Taylor, Andrew Forman and even Micky Young and Gareth Eddy who have gone understandably up to play at higher levels.

I watched the game on Saturday and the team that played was very different to that picked and named in the programme. The changes to the published team were made when the three Darlington players were then found to be unavailable on Saturday morning.

I think the team that played was as follows.

15.Iain Dixon - Darlington Mowden Park (Replacing Rob Mcdermott)
14.Rob Mcdermott - Durham University ( Replacing Ian Coulson Darlington)
13.David Tate - Gateshead
12.Tim Visser - Darlington Mowden Park
11.Oliver Bernard Durham University
10.Dale Taylor Durham University ( replacing Iain Dixon Darlington Mowden Park )
9.Andrew Foreman Darlington Mowden Park
8.Scott Powell Harrogate
7.Billy McKinnion Durham City Captain (Replacing Michael Taylor Darlington)
6.Tony Irwin Sunderland
5.Harry Isles Durham City ( replacing Stuart Palmer Darlington)
4.Iain Robinson Darlington Mowden Park
3.David Sinclair Darlington Mowden park
2.Andrew Dixon West Hartlepool TDSOB
1.Mark Cammiss Durham City

Replacements
Michael Thompson Horden, Richard Curry Durham City, Jeff Roberts Durham City, Chris Robinson Durham City,Tom Basey Durham University,Richard Knowles Durham City, David Kell Gateshead.

Wonderfish, brilliant Hartlepool line-up that.

Some of your descriptions of the players was shades of Jack Charlton announcing his Ireland team many a year ago at a press conference

"aye ... err left wing, err that skinny led with a good left foot (Kevin Sheedy)

"Up front, err the ice cream led (Tony Cascarino) :-P

Very rose tinted glasses there with your team HBL. I reckon only Turner and Gilmour would make it into the team