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| It was only 6-3 to the home side at the break but they came out for the second half fired up and bulldozed their way to victory in the third quarter. We rallied and came back with two well deserved tries by Carlo Robinson |
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| .In the first half our fresh faced side certainly gave Darlo a shock. Our pack was full of 17 and 18 year olds who more than matched their counterparts until they began to get the measure of our line out. Paul Moss equalized a home penalty with an excellent 30 metre strike but was just wide with a 40th minute which would have given us a deserved share of the spoils at half time. |
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| This was the first time the Stags have played
together as a side and coaches Sammy Hutton and Gary
Miller were more than pleased with the way they started
their season. Sammy said: "The lads impressed everybody with their potential and even the ref was coming across to the touchline to say what a great bunch of prospects we have. "It was our first game, and there are lots of things to work on, but we all learnt a lot and we will get stronger and stronger as the season goes on." One bonus for the first team was the appearance of a slimline Tommy Barff in the second half. His shoulder has recovered and he's down to 15 stone. Stags: 15 Martin Todd 14 Tom Steele 13 Peter Hodgson 12 Paul Moss 11 Craig O'Donovan 10 Tom Rance 9 Chris Williamson 1 Anth Carr 2 Phil Butler 3 Carlo Robinson 4 Anth Williams 5 Paul Rhodes 6 Greg Edwards 7 Will Richardson 8 Carl Miller Reps: Dan Pattison, Steve Clayton, Henry Tones, Philip Wallis, Andrew Hare, Tommy Barff. |
Darlington II's 37 Stags 13
By Dave Picken - September 21 2003Two Tries
Forget the scoreline this was a Stags performance which promised much for the future. Against a much more experienced Darlington side which included half a dozen players who featured in the first team last season - we held our own for long periods.