Heughers 41 – Ponteland 5

Team:
LAWSON, BUTTERY, COOKLAND, HOGG, BAXTER, BULLOCK, MCGUIRE, TAYLOR, STEPHENSON, FAWCETT, GALLAGHER, GREGORY, S.RAILTON, GUNN, CUSHLOW, CHARTERS, SAUNDERS, THOMAS, WILSON, MANNESS, DAKERS.

Ponteland borrowed Matty Saunders and Jim Manness to get up to full strength and both gave a great display against their own club mates, well done boys it's not all about leagues!

Rovers started well with some good pressure and a high kick from Daz was chased by Dave Gregory who fed Randy then got it back to score after only 5 minutes, Daz converted, 7 – 0.

The home scrums were solid and pressure was turned into points when Daz kicked a penalty on his second chance after an infringement by the scrum half, 10 – 0, 15 minutes.

Greggs is continuing to find his feet at centre and had some great runs backed by Jack Gunn who was also looking dangerous. Hard work from Taylor and Buller in the forwards ensured any ball Ponteland did get was under pressure. Despite this the pack looked lethargic with little of the enthusiasm that we saw last week.

A second try came after 35 minutes when a strong scrum helped by new signing Danny Cookland at tighthead, pushed Ponteland off their own ball for Buller to score an unconverted try, 15 – 0.

Straight from the restart Greggs broke up to their 22m line and quick ball from a scrum gave Bubbles space to show his speed and cross to score, Daz hit a fine kick from the sideline taking the half-time score to 22 – 0.

Olly came on for Scotty at hooker but a sniper got him after 30 seconds so just as Scotty was telling me he had used all of his energy because he knew he was coming off, he was back on.

Danny Charters came on and wasted no time injecting pace into the attack, Matty Wilson also entered the fray, both keen to get back into things after injury. Dylan Thomas also came on for Cush at full back.

A great touchline run by Danny (Charters obviously not Baxter), then he fed Jack Gunn who stormed over for a converted try, 29 – 0, 48 minutes.

Ponteland to their credit fought back and continued to spoil the party. Jim Manness capped off a great game scoring in the corner, 29 – 5, 54 minutes.

More scrappy play followed but a good cross-kick from Daz was caught by Randy to score an unconverted try, 34 – 5, 65 minutes. The last score of the game came after a pick and go from Squid who smashed his way through to score, Daz converted to take the final score to 41 – 5.

Not a great display but still a convincing win leaving us in 4th position in the Candy league with only a few games left. The winning ways need to continue into the end of the season and the Pyman cup game against Seaton.