Aaron Myers got 20 minutes to stake his claim for a spot in the selection problem area of the back row. He tackled everything that moved and certainly caught the eye of a spectator or two.

It was all about the first half though. The three tries could easily have been five had a Darren Thomas pass not drifted forward with Chris Lambert away down the wing, Paul Moss not seen his 40th minute chip through take a 90 degree bounce on the line and wrong foot the chasers. But these could hardly be criticisms in what was some of the best rugby West have played this season as all parts of the game functioned well. The defence was resolute when required, consistently knocking City back and turning over ball. The game was played at a high tempo with the wings involved regularly and some excellent support play all over the field.

With a three try advantage at the break it was always possible West might sit back a little and so it was allowing City back into the game, but never enough to threaten the result.

Moss had another solid game at 10 and it was him who opened the scoring on 3 minutes. A maul moved play inside the Durham 22 and a Davy Tighe break and a Carlo Robinson charge drew in defenders leaving Moss to capitalise on the resulting overlap. He converted himself from a tricky position on the left to give his side the perfect start.

That perfect start got even better when 3 minutes later Peter Hodgson surged through the City defence in his own half and fed Thomas who raced 40 metres to score having straightened the line well and left much-hyped full-back James Walker for dead. Moss made the easy conversion from under the posts to make it 14-0.

City were clearly frustrated by their start, or lack of one, and when a few decisions went against them began to lose their cool. West couldn’t take advantage with more points until the half hour mark when a move looked the go wrong after Greg Edwards threw a loose pass to Martin Todd but the winger picked up in stride on the bounce and drew his man to put Chris Lambert away to score in the corner. Confidence clearly high Moss nailed the wide conversion and was kicking well out of hand as well as for goal.

The half time whistle came just after the Moss chip through and another score then would have been game over. As it was there was still work to do and West needed to maintain the intensity of that first forty. However the tackling started to get a little sloppy and City’s powerful forward runners capitalised with some surges upfield. When Chocky was despatched to the sin-bin for killing the ball in the shadow of his own posts City took advantage from a scrum and Walker outpaced his opposite number Thomas with a nicely arced run to touchdown in the corner just before losing the ball. His own conversion was pulled wide.

There was a chink of light at the end of the tunnel for Durham now and they started to press forward again, trying to make the most of their one man advantage. But the home defence held up and when fresh legs in Myers and Cullinane appeared with Chocky returning from the sin-bin it would take a monumental effort to score 23
points in the final quarter given the lack of attacking creativity so far.

As it was that never happened and the final quarter was played out with neither team really threatening the line. The coaching team will no doubt be a little disappointed at the way West let Durham come back at them in the second half, but Durham are a good side and it had to be expected they wouldn’t go down without a fight.
There can’t be much to criticise from the first half though. The early tries were a hammer blow and it shows how much the finishing has improved this season, today West able to exploit overlaps and finish off good positions with scores. Simple rugby, but effective.

West take the trip to Beverley next week and I’m sure Roy Kelly will be reminding us of West’s dire form on visits to Yorkshire. The two sides battled away earlier in the year with West getting a narrow victory so it promises to be a fiery encounter. Two tries in the opening ten minutes would make things interesting though!


West: Thomas, Lambert, Edwards, Hodgson, Todd, Moss, Tighe, Carr (Cullinane), Sawyer, Robinson, Rudd, Davies, D Boatman, Tones (Myers), J Boatman

Tries: Moss, Thomas, Lambert
Cons: Moss 3

Sin-bin: Davies

Walker, Wright, Stanley, Knowles, Mattison, Howe, Stevenson, Cammis, Davison, Herbert, Showler, Wearmouth, Johnson, Roberts, MacKinnon
Try: Walker

Referee: Chris Wray (Durham Society)