Horden & Peterlee 2nds 7 - 60 Rovers Heughers

For the 3rd time in a row the Heughers prevailed against Hartlepool & District opposition. Following on from wins against West Stags and Old Boys A the Heughers ran out convincing winners against Horden 2nds.

This did not seem likely at first with a disjointed Heughers' warm up translating into a poor first 20 minutes where Horden took the lead after they gained a penalty at scrum time and put pressure on the Rovers' line to score a converted try. Horden's lead could have been more as they missed 2 kickable penalties. Gradually though the Heughers came back into the game and proceeded to score 10 unanswered tries that went something like this.

7-7 Rovers draw level where a lovely back of the scrum move creates a gap for Dos to score against his old club. The returning Glyn Hewitt has his kicking boots on and slots the conversion.
7-12 Ryan Hodgson flies down the wing after Scott takes a quick penalty and good hands give Ryan just enough space to score in the corner.
7-17 Danny Charters picks up at the base of the scrum and powers over.

HT Horden 2nds 7 - 17 Rovers Heughers

7-22 Rovers kick off and Horden catch and clear to about the half way line. Scott takes a quick lineout to AJ who carves his way through the Horden defence and Ryan Hodgson finishes off for a psychologically significant score.

7-29 After pressure from the Heughers' forwards Pinhead pops a clever little pass to Danny who goes over for his 2nd try. The Pace converts.

7-34 Danny makes another break and Nathan Rayner is on hand to finish off for his first try for the club after some good interplay between the team.

7-41. Dos shows he still has enough pace with a 40 metre show and go break to split open the Horden defence. Pace adds the extras.

7-46 A break down the wing features some Fijian stye inter-passing with Mick Ryan prominent and Joe Little finishing off. Joe is featured as the lead picture and is available for modelling and celebrity look a like assignments.

7-53 The ball is robbed in the middle of the pitch and moved quickly to Kieran Wright who goes over in the corner. Pace puts over a superb touch line conversion.

7- 60. Danny is proving unstoppable and his combination of pace and power are too much for Horden as he races away from half way for his hat trick. Pace converts to complete Rovers' scoring.

We suffered 2 yellow cards at the end of the game with AJ and Ryan Clayton ending up on the naughty step. AJ for offering some unwanted and unwarranted advice to the ref and Ryan for a late tackle. Even so we held out and there was no further score.

FT Horden 2nds 7 - 60 Rovers Heughers

Horden perhaps suffered with some unfortunate injuries but this was one occasion where we dominated them physically. After many games where strong Horden packs have bullied us this was a match where our fitness and physicality put us on top.

It was a cracking squad performance with everyone putting in excellent performances whether they started or came on to boost the team. In the backs AJ was rock solid in defence and inventive in attack in his old position of full back. Wings Kieran Wright, James Coxon and Ryan Hodgson ran hard and got 3 tries between them. In the centres Grandy and Pip frequently broke the Horden defence with Dos now having scored 4 tries in 2 games and Pip assisting in 4 today - so he said. Half backs Pace and Scott always kept us going forward and Horden on the back foot.

Few of the pack will have played in a game where they have driven a Horden pack so often. Props Ian Pinchen, Ryan Clayton and Ste Saunders had the nudge on their opponents in the scrum and the mauls. Tony Ross had an all action game at hooker with a hand off on a poor Horden winger being particularly brutal. Tony's replacement Brad Harrington also had an effective cameo performance. Second rows Darren Smith, Mick Ryan and Nathan Rayner were prominent about the pitch with Nathan being a productive source of lineout ball. We had an excellent back row whose talents complemented each other. Joe Little was the go to man in defence and attack while Paddy O'Callaghan made some fine breaks with out getting over the whitewash and was the best lineout operator on show. As mentioned earlier Horden just could not live with Danny Charters' pace and power. Time after time it looked Danny was held only for him to surge away again. He fully deserved his hat trick and would be my man of the match.

Squad

AJ, Wright, Coxon, Grandy, Pip, Rugby Ryan Hodgson, Hewitt, Buttery, Pinchen (c), Ross, Harrington, Clayton, Saunders, Smith, Rayner, Mick Rugby Ryan, Little, O'Callaghan, Charters

Next week we are home to Westoe 2nds who beat us twice last season so a hard game is expected.

Report: Ian Smith