Bishop Auckland R.U.F.C.

BISHOP opened the second half of their Durham and Northumberland Division Three league programme with a visit to South Shields.

Having defeated the students by over 50 points at West Mills in September, Bishop were looking for a comfortable win and with 19 points on the board inside the first 20 minutes looked a good bet to get one, but they failed to allow for a much more organised and resilient College side determined to prevent a second heavy defeat. In fact, by the time the final whistle sounded, serious questions were being asked of the Bishop defence with no guarantee that the right answers would be forthcoming.

Bishop certainly started in the right frame of mind as they went 19 points up in as many minutes. First, the forwards drove for the line and Ruddick barged over to touch down and Evans converted. With Kellett winning good ball in the lineouts and the forwards controlling the scrums the pack kept up the pressure allowing Mike Halliday to celebrate his first game for the Club by touching down to round off a fine forwards move and again Evans added the extra points. With scrum half Brabban driving the pack upfield and getting the ball away quickly, the backs got in on the act when fine running from Bartle and Steed saw the latter take the ball at pace to round the College defence and touch down.

Sadly, that was the end of the scoring for Bishop but not for the College. With half-time approaching they caught Bishop flat-footed when they took a quick penalty and their backs moved the ball wide and over the line for a try which they converted to cut Bishop's lead at half-time to 12 points.

The second half saw Bishop continue to win and supply the backs with an abundance of possession, but their efforts at using it were predictable and ponderous and were easily snuffed out, while the forwards found the College pack a considerably harder nut to crack than at the start of the game. They swallowed up Bishop's attacks and repeatedly drove them back with some raking touchline kicks. Certainly, the loss of Steed early in the half seriously reduced Bishop's scoring potential and it came as no surprise when, with ten minutes left on the clock, the students scooped up a loose ball and ran the length of the pitch to score. Bishop finally brought a degree of urgency to their game that saw them play out the time remaining with no further catastrophies.

THE North RU Under-18s Youth team completed their preparations for the Inter-Divisional Festival game against the South West at Walsall RFC on December 28 with a 52-3 win over a Caledonia Independent Schools XV at Blaydon RFC, where an eight-try victory provided a real boost to morale ahead of games against England best players at this age-group.

Sedbergh full-back Ed Styles, Barnard Castle centre Rory Clegg and Durham School flanker Rob Bell all scored two tries, with fly-half George Drake, also from Sedbergh, added four conversions before Clegg took over the kicking duties in the second half and added a further two conversions.

The team for Walsall will be: Ed Styles (Sedbergh & Cheshire); Greg Moore (Woodhouse Grove, Morley & Yorkshire), Rory Clegg (Barnard Castle & Durham), Tom Casson (Sedbergh & Cheshire), Ben Thoy (Ermysted's GS, Otley & Yorkshire); George Drake (Sedbergh & Yorkshire), Charles Simpson-Daniel (Sedbergh & Durham); Josh Terry (Newton Rigg, Keswick & Cumbria), Matt Baker (Winstanley College, Sale Sharks & Lancashire) captain, Peter Altham (Myerscough College, Wharfedale & Yorkshire), Andrew Archibald (Whickham Sports College, Blaydon RUFC & Durham), Dan Chamberlain (Royds College, Morley & Yorkshire), Chris Davies (Altrincham GS, Wilmslow & Cheshire), Rob Bell (Durham School & Durham), Iain Moody (Longridge, Berwick upon Tweed & Northumberland).

Replacements: Philip Swainston (Harrogate GS, Harrogate & Yorkshire), Matthew Cannon (Dame Allans School, Northern & Northumberland), Dan Metcalfe (Harrogate GS, Harrogate & Yorkshire), Richard Beck (Leeds GS & Yorkshire), Will Welch (RGS, Newcastle, Newcastle Falcons & Northumberland), Tom Cockell (Giggleswick GS, Wharfedale & Yorkshire), Dan White (Hymers College, Leeds Tykes & Yorkshire), Mark Atkinson (St. Ambrose College, Altrincham-Kersal & Cheshire), Matt Terrett (Wales HS, Dinnington & Yorkshire), Chris Peace (Sedbergh, Malton & Norton & Yorkshire), James Reekie (RGS, Newcastle, Tynedale & Northumberland).