Billingham RUFC 1st XV
Matches
Sat 11 Oct 2014  ·  National League Three North
Billingham Rugby Club
Billingham RUFC 1st XV
26
5
Westoe
Billingham v Westoe Match Report Provided by Northern Echo

Billingham v Westoe Match Report Provided by Northern Echo

Dean Keenan13 Oct 2014 - 12:57
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Tim Wellock Match Report

Billingham 26 Westoe 5

IT always seemed likely last season that one of the trio of North-East teams in National Three North would be relegated and ultimately it was Percy Park who left Billingham and Westoe to carry the flag.

They did not carry it with any great distinction in a scrappy game on Saturday, but while it looks like being a season of struggle for injury-hit Westoe, Billingham are up to fourth.

Having become the top team on Teesside, they can become the region’s standard bearers at this level as the development of their facilities includes plans for a 4G pitch.

Also among their stated ambitions is to be the top family club in the North, although they are now fielding only two of the four Evans brothers, fly half Joe and outstanding full back Peter.

Billingham’s adventurous style has always made them a pleasure to watch in recent seasons but results so far suggest they have played better on their travels.

Judging by the harsh words at half-time, their home form was again unsatisfactory. But the response to the rollicking was immediate and they eased to a comfortable win with a four-try bonus.

Two of the tries came from 18-year-old centre Luke Wilson, who is in the Newcastle Falcons Academy and will learn from playing outside coach Chris Hyndman, who put him through for the first after 15 minutes.

Westoe replied with a ten-metre catch-and-drive finished off by their star man, No 8 Joe McKenzie, but there was no further score in a dour first half.

Billingham led 7-5, although almost everyone bar referee Ben Davis felt it should have been 10-5 as Peter Evans’ 35-metre penalty on the stroke of half-time appeared to have sailed over.

With Mr Davis keen to make his presence felt, an error-strewn game never flowed. When Westoe mounted some late pressure scrum half Matt Mellish was penalised for backchat for querying why he was adjudged to have knocked on.

The two yellow cards for the visitors and one for Billingham brought no argument, however. Westoe’s new hooker, Tom King, was the first to go but they held out gamely until just before he returned.

That was when Billingham, showing more urgency, scored shortly after the interval. They ran a penalty and Hyndman scrambled over in the left corner, where all three second half tries were scored. The next also resulted from a quickly-taken penalty, Wilson darting over and Evans adding an excellent conversion.

Westoe often showed signs of getting on top in the scrums, but they lost one against the head prior to left winger Craig Shepherd romping over for the final try. Evans was again on target.

Match details

Match date

Sat 11 Oct 2014

Kickoff

15:00

Meet time

01:00

Competition

National League Three North
Team overview
Further reading

Team Sponsors

Shirt Sponsor - ColourScreen Teesside
Main Club Sponsor - Billingham Windows
Club Sponsor - Sandmartin Financial Advisers
Shirt Sponsor - Unitel Direct