Winlaton Vulcans RFC

Winlaton erased the memory of last weeks defeat at Houghton by recording their 4th win in 5 games in the home clash against Guisborough.

Starting the 1st half playing up the infamous hill at Axwell View and against a stiff wind the assembled supporters must have expected a difficult half, with most hoping that the home side could start the second half with a small deficit.

This never transpired, the Vulcan’s had to make several changes to the side from the previous week. Barry Morns came in at 8 for Andy Robinson who hadn’t recovered from his thumb injury and Dan Mothersdale started his 1st game of the season at 12 replacing the injured Michael Johnstone. Their was a start for player/coach Graeme Clarkson at scrum half with Steve Macleod moving to flanker and Yasser Albassam started at Full back. This allowed Kevin Allison to move to Fly half and Tariq Albassam to move out to No 13 to replace the unavailable Luke Mitchell who had been player of the season so far.

However this week the pre game preparations were much better for the home side and the game kicked off 10 minutes late due to Guisborough arriving late due to traffic problems.

What began as a game too close to call ended up in an easy win for Winlaton, from the start the pack dominated and Guisborough were sucked into taking on Winlaton up front, a mistake many sides make. Surprisingly the game was played mostly in the away sides half and Guisborough gave away many penalties at the break down which allowed Kevin Allison to pin them back with accurate touch kicks. However one side of the Vulcan’s game which didn’t function was the lineout, Guisborough regularly stole the ball and this prevented the home side from turning possession and territory into points. Midway through the 1st half Winlaton did score, an infringement at the breakdown allowed Kevin Allison to slide kick 3 points from an acute angle against the strong wind. Within 10 minutes Winlaton scored again this time Clarkson broke from the base of a ruck and made 20 metres, when tackled he offloaded to Lock forward Bowles who must have thought he was in from 35 metres out but was closed down by the covering winger, however he timed the pass well and Tariq Albassam hit the ball at pace and scored for the try, Kevin Allison converting.

Half time 10-0

Winlaton had the slope and the elements in the second half and never allowed their opponents the chance to come back. They made a change in the back row with Hunter replacing Scullion who had taken a knock to the ribs. Allison added 3 points 5 minutes into the half and then Clarkson made 1 of many breaks from the breakdown and looked a cert to score, however an excellent tap tackle felled him. Regaining his feet he managed to break 2 tackles and score a well deserved try, Allison again slotted the conversion.

Another change was made, again in the back row when Macleod left the field with an elbow injury, he was replaced by Dave Curry. Wilcox also replaced Mothersdale at centre who was feeling the pace on his way to match fitness.

Winlaton all but sealed the win 20 minutes from time when a catch and drive resulted in a try for Dave Curry who was driven over from close range with Allison in fine form with another successful kick. This however spurred Guisborough into life, they began to run the ball, with some powerful running, excellent angles and a good level of support Winlaton were forced to defend frantically at times but Guisborough’s enthusiasm got the better of them and they repeatedly turned over the ball. When not letting Winlaton off the hook with mistakes they conspired to give away penalties at the breakdown by enthusiastically contesting rucks and going over the top all too often. This allowed Winlaton the chance clear their lines and make the opponents attack from deep again. One such attack did however result in a wonderful individual try for the Guisborough left wing, after a series of phases where Guisborough made big assaults over the gain line, the ball was spun quickly across the field through the three quarters, the winger who looked to have nothing on, cut a beautiful angle from out to in which he evaded all the covering tacklers to score under the posts, a successful conversion put the score at 27-7. With 10 minutes remaining Guisborough by now well on top sniffed a comeback and threw everything at the hosts but valiant and brutal defending kept them at bay. One such attack produced the final score of the game, but not for Guisborough, after several phases of determined attacking the ball was knocked on, Kevin Allison upon gathering the ball put in the kick of the match.
From inside his 22 he cleared and the ball took the kindest of bounces and went out 2 metres from Guisborough’s try line. This took what wind was left out of their sails and from the resulting lineout they were deemed to be offside at the breakdown, Kevin Allison topped a man of the match performance with 3 points and a perfect ratio with the boot.

Final score 30 -7