Winlaton Vulcans RFC

Newton Aycliffe 1st XV 26 Winlaton Vulcans 2nd XV 20

Winlaton travelled to Newton Aycliffe with only 13 players for this friendly fixture, with several regulars away in Spain and the 1st team again subjected to last minute cry-offs it left the squad very short.

Two debutants were in action, both playing their first games of senior rugby, Dave Clark played at inside centre and Lee Hutton took up a berth in the second row. Newton Aycliffe kindly lent the Vulcans 2 backs so the sides were even. Several players played out of position so to fill the team sheet with veteran lock and former Club Captain Sean Kelly playing at No 8, a position he hadn’t played since colts and stand in skipper Les Cash normally a prop having to play at blindside flanker.

From the kick off Newton had the advantage of a very strong wind and made good use of it, the home backs were young and quick and their willingness to run, offer angles and offload in the tackle made the visitors struggle.

It didn’t take long for home winger Gibson to streak away to open the scoring, it was quickly added to by a score in the corner from Newman, in a very short space of time the Vulcans were 14-0 down. Further excellent handling in the backs saw Cochrane score under the posts and he added another score to leave the score 26-0.

Matters were made worse on 25 minutes when the visitors were reduced to 14 men because of injury, Old Father Time is finally catching up with Trevor Murdie and at 53 years old his hamstrings could hold out no longer. Winlaton were however having some success, especially in the forwards and set pieces, Newton were constantly under pressure and even with a 7 man scrum the Vulcans managed to win 2 scrums against the head. A kick to the corner from a penalty nearly produced a score at the end of the half for Winlaton but after a superb catch and drive with the line beckoning Sam McArdle in his efforts to move the maul open accidentally drove into his own man. The half ended 26-0 to the hosts.

The second half started much as the first had ended with a flowing move from the home side with only a forward pass preventing another score. From then on it was all Winlaton, using the wind and their dominance in the forwards to keep the home side pinned in their half. Abandoning the tactic of trying to take them on in the backs the visitors started to attack them through the forwards, running just off the rucks and mauls and attacking them around the fringes produced big gains and the home pack were tiring.

A break from the home 10 metre line produced a score when a good dart from debutant Clark was halted a quick ruck and feed from Wharton to Wilcox saw Les Cash break through the line and make 20 metres before offloading to Merritt who was tackled 5 metres out another quick ruck and Alex Tulip received the ball from Wharton to dive over in the corner. 26-5

Several big breaks were made by the forwards who were now finding holes and offloading but some excellent last ditch tackling was thwarting their efforts. Another score was added 10 mins from time when Kelly touched down, but try as they may Winlaton couldn’t close the gap. Final score 26-10.

As per the previous week a poor 1st half followed by a dominant 2nd half was the order of the day but after being able to only field such a scratch side the result and performance were excellent under such circumstances.

The squad will be bolstered this week by quite a few returning players and should provide a sterner test for the visitors Sunderland 3rds in a Durham Junior League game.

To view photo's from the game click this link;

http://winlatonvulcansrfc.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album09