Sunday
12
May
2019
In the Bill Beaumont Cup, Northumberland Senior Men took on Durham Senior Men on the 11th May 2019 at Kingston Park, winning 35-17. Have a read of the full match report below ....
BILL BEAUMONT CUP – Northumberland v Durham – Match Report
On Saturday, Kingston Park played host to a local county derby, as Northumberland took on Durham in the Bill Beaumont cup.
Under the glorious sunshine it was Durham who started the game the better of the two sides, with the visitors putting Northumberland under some early pressure.
Camped deep inside the Northumberland half, Durham looked certain to score the first points of the contest – but unfortunately, an errant lineout halted their chances.
Northumberland then seized on Durham’s missed opportunity, with prop Ben Sandal’s converted try giving the hosts and early 7-0 lead.
Not to be deterred, Durham hit back immediately, with a penalty from fly-hlf Jobe Roxby reducing Northumberland’s early lead.
Then out of nowhere, Durham took the lead following some good work from scrum-half Oliver Green who handed Lock Dan Palmer an easy score under the posts.
With the score sitting at 10-7 to the visitors, Northumberland knew that they had to step up.
And thankfully they did.
Roared on by the support of the Kingston Park crowd, Northumberland began to put Durham under pressure, with the visitors only just managing to repel wave after wave of North attack.
But then the gates opened thanks to an impressive run from prop Sandal who crossed over for both his and Northumberland’s second try of the afternoon.
And while Northumberland could have been happy with regaining the lead, they were keen to make sure that they continued to put their opponents under pressure.
The hosts then added their third try of the contest – with flanker Ben Gothorp crossing over the whitewash courtesy of some good work from centre Alex Clark.
And when the half-time whistle went, Northumberland led 21-7.
After the break, the contest started in frantic fashion with both sides keen to take hold of the early proceedings.
But after an initial flurry of chances for both sides, the contest began to tighten up, with inaccuracies and errors beginning to creep into the game.
It was Northumberland who managed to break the second half deadlock to add their fourth try of the afternoon – with the hosts executing a well worked rolling maul drive to cross over.
With the game beginning to slowly slip out of their grasp, Durham then produced perhaps the best try of the contest, with some superb handling in the backline handing Rob Stanwix a walkover score.
Durham continued to probe and press, looking for a route back into the contest.
Fortunately for the hosts however, this meant that they had to start taking risks – which backfired when Northumberland flanker Rob Lenderyou intercepted an errant Durham pass to cross over for another North try.
And while Durham gave their all to get themselves back into the contest, the deficit was just too much for the visitors to overcome.
And when the final whistle went, Northumberland had run out 35-17 winners over their local rivals.
Match report kindly written and supplied by Oscar Haley
You might also like to read the match report for our Senior Northumberland Women v Yorkshire here