NEWTON AYCLIFFE 55- 0 TECH

By JGD - January 31 2016
NEWTON AYCLIFFE 55- 0 TECH
  TECH made the journey to Moor Lane, Newton Aycliffe this week for what was always going to be a difficult task against the currently unbeaten league leaders. Their task was made even more difficult due to a number of late, late cry offs that resulted in them travelling with only 16 players. The shortage saw them start the game with Paul DOVE returning to the front row for his first game in almost 3 months and second row, Jordan READ playing on the wing. It was no surprise then that despite giving their all throughout they suffered a heavy defeat made worse by the fact that DOVE suffered a broken leg/ankle mid way through the second half.  

NEWTON AYCLIFFE 55-0 TECH

Things started badly for the visitors when after barely a couple of minutes the hosts opened the scoring. Following a quick tap penalty the ball was moved wide to the right wing for the winger to score an unconverted try. TECH were playing with plenty of heart despite their difficulties and did have periods of possession inside home territory but the well organised home defence kept them out on each occasion they started to look dangerous before making good use of their possession by regularly moving the ball through their backs to score another 4 tries before half time.

The second half continued in similar vein with the home side dominant but with TECH showing resilience and determination. Unfortunately on a number occasions when they started to make headway through their pack their progress was halted as the home forwards killed possession. They were regularly penalised but no further sanction was used by the referee despite the high penalty count.

Just after the hour TECH suffered a major setback when prop, Paul DOVE suffered what turned out to be a serious leg/ankle injury. The injury was purely accidental occurring as players fell on top of him as he drove forward. At first it appeared to be a possible broken ankle but a subsequent X – ray showed there were actually 3 breaks at the bottom of his leg the lowest one being just above the ankle

The hosts though continued to look dangerous every time they moved the ball and during the second period they scored a further 4 tries before the final whistle taking the final score to 55-0. Despite the size of this reversal TECH continued to battle away throughout gaining praise from the hosts for their efforts.

Hopefully next week will see the return of a number of the players missing yesterday when Seghill are the visitors to John Howard Park. The visitors currently occupy sixth place in the table with 32 points from 7 wins and 7 losses in their 14 games. They stand two places above TECH who have 29 points from 6 wins and 6 losses in their 12 games played.