Bishop 50 - 22 Darlington

The third match of the season saw Bishop welcome Houghton U14’s to pitch 1 on home ground. A team who have always been a pleasure to play against previously.

With the support of some additional Consett players, Houghton were able to make up a full complement of 15 players for the game, which on the face of it could make this match a hard game for Bishop.

However this was not to be the case and soon after the whistle was blown, the wave of tries and conversions from Bishop began to dominate over Houghton’s efforts to cover ground. Bishop’s forwards consistently held the defence with some fantastic rucks and strong drives from Seth, John, Matthieu and Connell.

There were lots of missed opportunities for Houghton as Bishop were able to steal possession of the ball through free balls in the first half.

Consistent communication from the centres gave Bishop the opportunities to outrun Houghton’s defensive line. Dylan, Freddie & Blake’s blisteringly quick pace took Houghton by surprise on many occasions. And by half time it was 43-0 to Bishop with tries from Leo, Blake, Freddie, and Dylon. Conversion kicks delivered by Leo and Ollie and it's great to see Ollie’s kicking skills improve week on week!!

The second half gave Houghton the opportunity to change tactics and positions of players. Call it ‘tired legs’ on Bishop's part but Houghton began to find their form and deliver a well deserved 4 tries with one conversion. Clearly they had picked up on Bishop's ability to find the gaps in defence and this is where Houghton capitalised for the second half.
Plenty of scrums and lineouts made for a much more even game for the remainder of the match and Houghton worked hard to keep possession.

The final (and only) try from Bishop came from Seth, a well deserved first try of his season, celebrated by the whole team.

Overall, another brilliant game of rugby for Bishop, still undefeated and it's evident that the training is paying off as the lads communicate really well together. But there is still a lot to learn with some strong teams yet to play in the coming weeks.

Man Of The Match went to Seth for his tireless commitment to win possession of the ball and secure his first try of the season.
Commendable Performance from Freddie for constantly changing his positioning to support his team and drive the ball up the field.