It all started well, with just 4 minutes gone and following good runs by Henry Tones, ‘Tinker’ Williamson and Anth Carr, captain for the day Allan Milne darted over from short range for the opening try, excellently converted by Phil Wallis. West looked dangerous on every attack, showing some excellent support play and handling. Jon Boatman went close and Carl Miller looked to have a touchdown after a rolling maul but eventually a turnover allowed Gateshead to clear.

Having produced nothing much in terms of attack in the opening quarter the hosts got level when a dropped pass on half way saw a fly-hack up-field and Lewis Carr won the foot-race for a score virtually under the posts. Full-back David Kell converting.

The lead was soon restored when Anth Carr muscled his way over 5 minutes later after a powerful rolling maul but it needed a good tackle out wide on Karl Morgan shortly after to maintain the advantage. West’s third try was largely thanks to a marginal decision by referee Hodgson. Tones seemed to use hands to turn ruck ball over on the West 22 and when the ball was fed on to Panda and then Boatman he had all of 40 meters to run with Kell in hot pursuit. It looked like the full-back had his man inside the 22 but Boatman somehow rode the tackle and went over to extend the lead.

It looked like the floodgates might open when the visitors stormed straight back downfield and scrum half ‘Tinker’ Williamson sold a dummy and jogged in untouched for a try converted by Wallis. That made the score 24-7 and things were looking rosy until another attack ended with Panda dislocating his knee having been tackled in to touch. An obviously painful injury required lengthy treatment and eventually an ambulance. Hopefully it won’t be too long before he’s back in action.

Going in at the break it all seemed comfortable for West – four tries and lots of attacking rugby with only a breakaway try against. Surely the second half would just be an easy coast into the next round! Any hardened West fan would know better than to think that! Gateshead came out a different team. Prop Andrew Fairless got a try from a rolling maul then it took another superb tackle from Danny Weegram to prevent Morgan going over in the corner. West all of sudden could win no decent ball and passes were going to ground everywhere. The hosts continued to rally and were gifted another score when David Tate intercepted a pass out wide and ran 60 metres for a try converted by Kell. At 24-19 the game was now well and truly in the balance and all credit to Gateshead for a spirited fight-back.

Things were to get worse for West before they got better. Tones was sent to the sin-bin for appealing to the referee after seeing a stray boot strike someone on the head. Penalty after penalty followed with Gateshead attempting to get the rolling maul going from close range. As seen against Rovers last week West employed the tactic of a lone “tackler” bringing down the driving players before the maul was formed. Much to the displeasure of the home players and crowd Mr Hodgson backed the explanation given by Chris Wray on this site last week by not penalising.

Kell lined up a tough penalty shot with 7 minutes to go but pushed it wide with Wallis missing a slightly easier chance a couple of minutes later. The game was eventually finished when Milne got his second try of the day cutting a nice line through the defence and Weegram added the final score following excellent work by replacement Stu Bennett.

There are a lot of things West can take from this game – 6 tries and some periods of excellent loose play to name two – but still things to work on – this game should have been closed out long before it was. Taking nothing away from Gateshead who never gave in, but against better opponents West will not be allowed to get away with the lack of concentration shown for large parts of the second period.

Still, a win is a win. Let’s hope to build on this next week at Penrith and hopefully get a nice home tie in the next round of Cup….Rovers perhaps?


Gateshead: Kell, L Carr, Condon, Tate, Morgan, M Foster, J Foster, Burns, Hooker, Fairless, I Carr, McConway, Arkle, Burns, Ingham (capt)

Tries: Carr, Fairless, Tate
Cons: Kell 2
Sinbin: J Foster


West: Thomas, Weegram, Todd, Milne (capt), Hare (Cheslin), Wallis, Williamson, Carr, Sawyer, Cholmondeley (Palmer), Rudd, Henderson (Davies), Tones (Bennett), Boatman, Miller

Tries: Milne 2, Carr, Boatman, Williamson, Weegram
Cons: Wallis 3
Sinbin: Tones

Referee: M Hodgson (Durham) [Some baffling decision both ways and I can only assume he did not see a number for the head stamp incident having brought play to an immediate halt only to talk to the captains and send Tones to the bin.]