Billingham 3TM
Matches
Sat 22 Oct 2011
Billingham Rugby Club
Billingham 3TM
Tries: P HallConversions: B ElgieYellow Carded: N Renwick
5
7
Billingham 3rd XV
Thirds maintain their record

Thirds maintain their record

Barry Woodhouse23 Oct 2011 - 07:08
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Against a very disciplined Darlo side the Thirds maintain an unbeaten record

Darlington v Billingham Thirds

Playing into a strong wind this would always be a difficult game for us starting despite a well stacked bench but without Whiteline Sudron with Elgie taking on the mantle and boosted by the return of a slimmed down Massey to add his experience to the fold. The pitch which looked junior size gave little scope for our open style of play. Darlo pressed hard with wind and slope on their side and tested the superb defensive qualities of Surtees, Andy Thompson and McCabe. A clever grubber forced a try saving tackle from Simpson and Billingham won a five metre scrum and a charge down resulted in a score for the home side. Simpson popped his thumb in a tackle and was replaced by McConnell who immediately went looking for work inside.Then on twenty five minutes Naz was given a couple of clips following a good run and retaliated, yellow was shown and we went down to fourteen. Taylor upped his defensive game and covered the middle and Donaldson was unlucky not to score when taking a great line could not hold a high pass under pressure fr
Half Time om Jessey. The Thirds defended valiantly and at the turn around Darlo were unable to increase their score.
Darlington 5 v Billingham Thirds 0
Half time saw the changes with the three Thompsons leaving the park with Taylor and Dixon to be replaced by Child, Brumpton, Hutchinson, Woodhouse and Kelsey.
Then from the kick off Billingham scored what must be one of the quickest tries in Third team history. Morgan caught the restart and galloped downhill towards the opposition posts. Tackled ten metres out Hall took the popped up pass and bulldozed his way over to score. Twenty seven seconds gone and Elgie slotted the kick to put us ahead. Grey was once again dominant in the line and the experience he gained from his visit to the seconds last week has improved his open play game. We were pressing hard but seemed to lack penetration and Taylor replaced Jessey and the backs reshuffled with Woodhouse going to nine and driving hard into the home defence. Playing in the front row, which was hammering the opposition Child tried to rip the ball and it was considered illegal to give us our second yellow of the day.
Canham came on for Elgie and surprised the opposition by running right through their defence only to be “collared” ten metres out but with no resulting penalty. Kelsey had to limp off with what looked like a twisted knee bringing Andy Thompson back on. Almost the last play of the day saw Donaldson try a clever chip out wide but a Darlo player in an offside position intercepted the kick. The game finished with the home side winning a srum and strangely kicking the ball out as if they were ahead Darlington 5 v Billingham Thirds 7
Hard fought and a little disjointed at times but a good win against a disciplined defensive Darlington side. Well done , hard fought, not always pretty but to grind out a win against this very experienced team was was a great effort.

Match details

Match date

Sat 22 Oct 2011

Kickoff

15:00

Meet time

13:30
Team overview
Further reading

Team Sponsors

Club Sponsor - Sandmartin Financial Advisers