Davy Tighe Returns

By Dave Picken - January 30 2004
Davy Tighe Returns
Davy Tighe
Davy Tighe will start at scrum half as we travel north to face third place Morpeth. On a heavy pitch Gez will also start in the front row so Darren Thomas and Carl Miller will both drop down to the bench ... but will almost certainly figure at some stage.

The shuffle sees Anth Carr going into the second row alongside Paul Rudd who returned to form in last week's excellent show at Middlesbrough.

Allan Milne has recovered from a slight knock, so the rest of the backs will be unchanged with Mark Thompson joining Dash and Carl on a strong looking bench.

Despite the weather there was a good turnout at training last night with the lads desperate to keep their excellent run going. Fortunately the thaw has already set and rain is forecast with even higher temperatures over the weekend.

Stu Bennett will continue as skipper with Davy as vice-Captain. Stu's own game has improved with the responsibility, and he will be travelling down from work in Scotland eager for another result.

He says: "Morpeth are the one side who have done us at Brinkburn ,when we just didn't even start to play, so it would be nice to show them what we are really made of. They are a good side, going for a play off place, so it should be a cracking game.

Morpeth struggled to beat Stockton last week and suffered a severe set back to their promotion hopes when rivals Middlesbrough put 40 points past them on their pitch. When they beat us Falcons on loan fly-half Toby Flood was impressive but he won't be playing tomorrow because of injury. They've had to call 36-year-old Chris Lishman out of semi-retirement to play at fly-half.

Morpeth will be making one enforced change from theside which beat Stockton 20-15In the back row Angus Nelless comes in for the unavailable John Younger.

The Stags will be taking on the Reivers at Morpeth keen to get back on track after they ran out of steam inthe second half at Middlesbrough last week. They'll be without John Painter as he's doing Tech a favour because of their front row problems.

West: Martin Todd, Steve Black, Peter Hodgson, Allan Milne, Andrew Hare, Michael Geritz, Brett Cullinane, Carl Robinson, Anth Carr, Paul Rudd, Andrew Davies, Henry Tones, Stu Bennett [Capt{.

Reps: Mark Thompson, Darren Thomas, Carl Miller.

Morpeth D Wall, A Rogers, S Hills, B Stewart, D Cunningham, C Lishman, P Jackson, D Dickinson, S Ramsey, R Morrison, J Stafford [capt], P Scott, A Nelless, I Menzies, D Hutton

Reps: M Nordini, J Goodfellow, J Walton.

These were the sides when Morpeth beat us quite easily earlier in the season. A game which was held up for some considerable time while an ambulance was called to remove Mr Cholmondeley from the pitch.

West Martin Todd, Dave Mullen, Andrew Hare, Allan Milne, Will Richardson, Davy Tighe, Darren Thomas [Phil Wallis 65], Mark Cholmondeley [Phil Gilbraith 45], Brett Cullinane, Carl Robinson [Carr 15], Paul Rudd, Stu Bennett, Carl Miller, Henry Tones Tim Sawyer [capt}.

Reps: Anth Carr, Phil Gilbraith, Philip Wallis.

Morpeth 15 David Wall 14 Alan Rogers 13 Marc Nordini 12 Brian Stewart 11 Darren Cunningham 10 Toby Flood 9 Paul Jackson 1 Richard Morrison 2 David Dickinson 3 Robert Leiper 4 John Stafford [Capt] 5 Paul Scott 6 John Walton 7 Ian Menzies 8 Duncan Hutton 16 Ben Dale 17 Stephen Rank 18 Chris Reynolds