Percy Park 15 – 0 Driffield
Park returned to the top of North One East with a less than emphatic win against Driffield RUFC. West Hartlepool who led the table going into the game, were stymied by the frost at McCracken Park so were unable to play their game against Northern, which allowed Park to move ahead of the Brinkburn side by a point.
Both Park and Driffield were forced to make last minute changes to the sides which were declared in the match program. Joe Wafer failed a fitness test before kick off which meant Chris Reekie moved up to prop. Craig Fidler was unavailable due to work commitments in “Whereisitstan”, so brother Adam came into the back row and Sean Williamson moved into the second row. Driffield’s “dangerous brothers” Lee and Karl Birch, rumour has it, are moving on to pastures new, so did not travel with the team. Lee Birch who is the league’s top try scorer will be a big miss for the Kellythorpe side if he does move as predicted to York RUFC.
The overnight thaw, meant that Preston Avenue was fit for rugby, although the surface was a little greasy which didn’t make for a fast free flowing game.The visitors kicked off and Park pressed in the early exchanges but couldn’t break the Driffield defences. Early in the season Park won at Driffield, and their pack were well on top in all phases, today however the scrummage and line out didn’t function as well as usual which starved the Park back line of good possession. In addition, Driff’s scrum half Craig Gray pounced on any loose ball at the back of the Park scrum.
Ali Blair had a couple of chances to break the deadlock for the home side, but one both occasions after making good ground was stopped close to the line and was unable to get the ball away to his support players. Park’s best chance came from a catch and drive, from a line out in the visitors half. The ball was cleanly won and driven 20 plus yards. With the pack comfortably in charge and looking to go all the way, the ball was spun out to the backs and the attack was snuffed out by some solid hits in midfield.
The first half looked to be ending in a stalemate until Driffield were penalised for not rolling away in the tackle, and Ash Smith kicked the points on offer to give Park a 3 – 0 lead on 41 minutes.
Early in the second half, Driffield’s stand in full back Sam Furbank had the chance to level the score but missed his kick at goal after Park had been penalised in their own half.
Chris Reekie for Park was making a big impact when he had the ball in hand, and on 49 minutes crashed the ball into the Driffield 22 taking several players to bring him down. The ball was recycled to fly half Martin Shaw who exploited a gap in the defence and went over for a try near the posts which Ash Smith converted to give Park a 10 – 0 lead.
With Joe Wafer being unfit to play, Park called up Brett Sylph at the last minute from the Lions to the bench, and last year’s skipper came on the pitch for an injured Adam Fidler, and made an immediate impact. In fact all of the Park bench of Firth, Rutter and Sylph were brought on in the last quarter, which seemed to turn the complexion of the game.
Craig Firth broke through the Driffield back line with a strong run in the centre, and the ball was fed out to right wing Howard Stock, who was stopped 10 metres out. The quick ball was recycled right with players queuing up, but it was Brett Sylph who drove over for the try which was unconverted.
With Park now 15 – 0 up the wind had been knocked out of the Driffield sails, and the game petered out without much further incident.
Percy Park Lions won convincingly away at Blaydon 45 – 0 taking them to top spot in the UBS Candy Division 2. Not to be outdone the Marauders won a close game against Morpeth Stags 7 – 6. As this game was a double header this moves them to top of Northumberland League 3b. The Academy also won 15 – 0 away at Westoe and stay top of their league.
The winning habit also rubbed off on Ponteland who had asked to play their league game against Medicals at Preston Avenue. The Pont pitches were frozen, so the game was moved to Park, and Ponteland won 20 – 14.
Next week Percy Park travel to Pontefract. The Lions play Horden at home and the Pumas are away to Jarrovians.
Saturday 29th January 2011 will also be a big day for Women’s Rugby at Percy Park. The Army Rugby Union (W) take on Scotland A at Preston Avenue, with the ladies taking centre stage. KO 2pm