We actually took the lead in the first minute and didn't lose it until more than halfway through the second period.
Phil Wallis kicked off, they knocked on and, from the scrum, Wallis dummied to Paul Moss. The gap opened and the fly half made thirty metres evading three tackles before drawing full back Steve Kay and offloading to Martin Todd. He steamed in under the posts from 20 metres.
A few minutes later Matthew Jinks missed a long range penalty for the home side, but from then on the game was played in the Northern half.
Against a heavier pack it became a solid regime of us getting shoved back on our put in and Davy Tighe and Stu Bennett trying to make something of poor ball. Refereee Revis Phillips, from Yorkshire, was more than diligent about accidental offside and even crossing on the fringes of mauls and we were constantly frustrated.
Brett Cullinane was in outstanding form all game and Northern did finally step up a gear when he wass sin binned on 34 minutes for handling on the floor.
Phil Butler came on at the first scrum for his first team debut at hooker - and stayed on for the rest of the game. Henry Tones suffered a nasty shoulder injury when he dived on a loose ball just as a Northern player decided to take an almighty kick at it. Fortunately, it was Henry's shoulder and not his head which took the full brunt - there again.
A woeful Tones now faces missing out on Boxing Day against his pals.
The second half was much of the same. We did get decent possesion on 53 minutes with a deft kick through from Moss but, as Peter Hodgson chased the ball, he was pulled back some 20 metres out and straight in front of the posts. Sadly Mr Phillips missed this one as we felt that one more score would have settled it. Such was the deadlock.
But almost inevitably Northern scored with their only real attack of the second half. Big centre Gib MacMillan made ground into the 22. He was brought down and from the maul they went left. Steve Black and Hodgy dealt with it but we wee brought back for offside. They went for the scrum and eventaully worked the ball out onto the blindside for centre Andy Bindman to go in at the corner.
In the conditions it was a desperately difficult kick for Jinks but he managed it to square the scores.
We came back and Davy Tighe narrowly missed a 30 metre penalty. The pressure stayed on and we spent a full ten minutes camped in their 22 but couldn't squirm our way over.
It looked ready made for John Painter and he did eventually replace Anth Carr we couldn't get the score we probably deserved.
Both Greg Edwards and Phil Butler can be proud of their debuts, and the try produced by the talents of Wallis and Todd bodes well of things to come.
Its also worth remembering that this side lacked the likes of Chocky, Tim Sawyer, Allan Milne and Mark Thompson, while players like Mark Cholmondeley and Phil Gilbraith are itching to get back in the side. 2004 could be an interesting year.
West: 15 Martin Todd, 14 Steve Black, 13 Peter Hodgson, 12 Paul Moss, 11 Andrew Hare, 10 Phil Wallis, 9 Davy Tighe [capt], 1 Anthony Carr, 2 Brett Cullinane, 3 Michael Geritz, 4 Paul Rudd 5 Carl Miller, 6 Henry Tones, 7 Greg Edwards, 8 Stuart Bennett. Reps: 16 John Painter, 17 Phil Butler, 18 Darren Thomas.