Tuesday
03
November
2015
Northumberland Under 16’s v Cumbria Under 16’s
Sunday 1st November 2015 Blyth RFC
On a perfect day for playing good open rugby Cumbria won the toss and elected to play with the sun at their backs. Northumberland kicked off, Cumbria collected the ball and immediately put us under some pressure running the ball back at us. Our good defensive training paid off, we held up to some good hard sustained pressure for the first few minutes.
The play then swung from end to end with very good hands by both teams. Zac Thompson made a good break scoring a very good try converted by Jesse Holloway. Cumbria hit back shortly after with a try by their winger Shaw Lorimer-Bell converted by Lewis Williams. Some good ball handling saw Tom Wilcox score in the corner. Again Cumbria came back strongly with a try by Ben Darlington. We finished the half off strongly with a try by Tom Marshall forcing his way over in the corner. With the score standing 20-12 at half time.
Now playing with a falling sun in their faces Cumbria received a long kick off, running straight back into our half of the field. Both sets of forwards were working very well, getting to the breakdowns and securing good ball to give their backs plenty of room to move. Cumbria got the first try in the second half through their big second row Will Montgomery. Both teams started to bring on their replacements.
Northumberland went straight onto the attack, winning good ball from the maul, driving forward Cumbria moved off side Jesse Holloway struck the penalty well. Again with the game flowing from end to end, the standard of play was very good from both teams. Northumberland raised the pressure and were keeping Cumbria in their own 22 for long periods. One of the Cumbrian players was sin binned for constantly being warned for off side, resulting in Jesse Holloway slotting over a simple penalty. A good break by our inside centre saw Zac Thompson go over for his second try, Cumbria kept on pressuring us and this payed off with a try in the corner by one of their subs Callum Scobie-Youngs. The Final score of the day game ending at 28 – 22. A good win for a good Northumberland performance.
This was a credit to both counties with some very good rugby played by both teams. Looking forward to seeing some of these players playing at a higher level in years to come.
The game was well marshalled by the official team of Gregg Dawson, Richard Gates and Dan Whaley.