Bishop 26 - 24 Darlington

Bishop U14’s had the pleasure of being hosted by Darlington RFC on Sunday 20th September and the team were ready to carry on their winning performance from their previous match with Horden.

In previous seasons, Darlington has been a challenging team to beat and the Bishop lads knew that they would have to dig deep for a win.

Due to the low number of Darlington players, it was decided to mix the match up, playing 12 a side instead of 15 for the first half and then allowing a couple of the Bishop lads to don Darlington shirts to allow for a 15 a side match to end the game. Roli, Tom and Harry stepped up to support Darlington to ensure a full compliment on the field.

During the first half, the skill sets between the two teams were equally matched and it made for a great game of rugby. Effective positioning of the defensive line saw some excellent tackles by Harry, Max and Roli on the wings.

There were a few lost opportunities in the rucks when the ball was won by Darlington but they struggled to push the ball up the field without kicking the ball for lineouts.

The scrums were really hard fought and Darlington seemed to have the edge when it came down to winning the ball. Despite this, when Bishop did have the advantage, the communication between Hodsy, David, Jake and Daniel meant the ball could be passed down the line quickly to allow break away runs for the 4 tries of the match by Oli, Leo(2) and Blake.

You could see the team were really enjoying their performance, that’s what it should be all about. Most noticeable were the celebrations from Oli and Blake on taking flight when scoring a try!

Leo and Oli continue to hone their conversion skills and this again gave the winning edge over Darlington resulting in a win for Bishop.

Daniel’s committed tackling saw him get a knock to the leg which ended his game, we hope he makes a full recovery and see him back on the field soon.

Blake was commended for his overall performance on the pitch. Decisive positioning, effective tackles and winning a try made him Man Of The Match…..well done Blake!!

So it’s two successive wins to start the season!! Next week sees a home game with Houghton Le Spring…bring it on!