Who need’s the Rugby World Cup when you can totter down to Bishop Auckland Rugby Club on a grey and slightly wet morning, for an hour of nail-biting entertainment, skilled positional management and polished manipulation of the rugby ball that the Romanians would be jealous of!

Nobody knew what to expect, the coaches, the spectators, the referee or the players! The game was a real stalemate for 10 minutes, the ball passing from team to team and most of the action occurring in the middle of the pitch. Eventually a pass out to the wing (a rare thing!) and blistering and powerful run by William resulted in the first try of the season and has begun a sparkling career as a rugby player for one of the newest recruits.

Bishop settled into a powerful period of possession, with Kai battering through the opposition several times to score excellent tries. Spurred on by his loud and passionate groupies on the side lines, he shows true brute force in repelling tacklers and gravity seems to keep him standing up rather than the other way round. The first of three men of the match, nice one Kai!
4-1 at half time, the rugby Gods were smiling.

The second half continued in the same vein of form, with plenty of stalemate as the Consett showed a steely determination to stay in the game. Some tired bodies starting to show, Consett started to pull back a little, until a sneaky little opportunist try by Aadi put Bishop ahead by 4 again. This was backed up by Adie powering through to score his first of many tries this season. Always the consistent force and had an excellent game.

No tears, no commiserations, no recrimination, Consett are a decent side and you do expect a comeback from them, we got it! In the last ten minutes they did well to take advantage of tiring bodies and scored four tries to even the score, as the truly professional referee (bursting to tell Bishop to kick the ball out for the win but held his professional integrity) blew the final whistle.

Lots to take from this performance. The scrum was truly excellent and powered through Consett on numerous occasions. It looked very professional from where this reporter was standing. Dylan was an excellent leader and jumped out of position to support the team on numerous occasions, the second man of the match. Well done!

It was an excellent team performance and a great result. Worth noting that some positions do not get as much credit as others, with focus on try scorers as points are everything. However, Luca was outstanding, he saved numerous tries with crunching and professional-style tackles on Consett and proved himself as a very slick, stylish and competent rugby player. Third man of the match and very well deserved.
Well done everyone, great result, great refereeing, some things to work on as the team march on but we have plenty of positives to build on. Roll on Middlesbrough.
Tries
Kai -3
Adie -1
Aadi -1
William - 1

Men of the Match
Luca
Kai
Dylan