Gosforth 18 vs Heughers 25

With the kick off delayed due to late arrivals, Rovers took some time to get into the game and Gosforth capitalised on this. After pressure in a scrum then a well taken line, the home side cruised to a 5 point lead in the opening minutes. Rovers started to slowly apply pressure as the game progressed with good lineout ball from Anthony Hanley. They were however constantly penalised for what seemed to be good rucking. Scrums were again a concern with the Gosforth loose head causing problems but thankfully he had to retire with an ankle injury and was replaced with a skinny number 8?

Daz Fawcett was kicking into good positions keeping the home side pinned in their own half and was close with a long-range penalty. Good work in the loose from Bullock straight from the 22m drop out brought another strange penalty decision for rucking too hard? With a further 10m for dissent Gosforth extended their lead to 8 – 0.

Rovers continued to play into good positions and defended well when they needed to with good counter-rucking in particular by Pinchen, Whitehead, Fuzz and Bullock but both teams were constantly disrupted by strange refereeing decisions. A good chip and chase by Pinkey took Rovers back to the home try line and effective inter-passing by Little, Bullock and Pinchen led to a scrum from which Whitehead drove over for a try and Fawcett converted. 8 – 7.

The second half saw Fawcett come off and Pinkey move to stand off with Ben Durrans moving into the centre. Good work by Arnell then a take against the head by Fuzz ended in a kick to the corner but Baxter was stopped short from the lineout take. Gosforth were feeling the pressure but with the hooker leaving the field the referee implemented non-contested scrums, taking the advantage away from Rovers. A penalty by Pinkey took the score to 8 – 10 but Gosforth got one back for a high tackle making it 11 – 10. Another of the new lads from Teesside University, Jamie Carmillet replaced Matty Stephenson at scrum half and without the need for props any more Ben Atter had a run on for Eggy.

A good spell for Rovers followed with excellent running lines from Barnfield and Arnell saw him score a good try from first phase ball. The kick was missed giving a lead of 11 – 15. Whitehead extended the lead straight from the kick off with a storming run from 50m through the full Gosforth pack, converted by Barnfield, 11 – 22.

Gosforth fought back with a converted try under the posts 18 – 22 but they were finally penalised after being off-side all game at the break-down. This allowed Rovers to end the game with a penalty by Pinkey giving a final score of 18 – 25. Well done lads.