|
 |
| 3 February 2004, 9:48 am |
| Wanderers Notch Up Another Bonus Point Win |
|
|
|
|
|
WANDERERS 40
NEWCASTLE IIs 27
Goldington Road
Monday, February 2, 2004
The Wanderers continued their rich vein of form with another bonus point win against Newcastle IIs at Bedford's Goldington Road last night.
Newcastle began the stronger side dominating most of the pressure in the opening minutes. The Wanderers did not take long to find the form of recent weeks though scoring their first try through No 8 and co-captain Brett McNamee in the eighth minute.
The home side were now fired up choosing to scrummage a penalty as the pack were quickly learning they were winning the battle of the forwards. Scrum-half Johnny Howard collected the ball from the back of the scrum before popping a reverse pass to wing Paul Diggin, who was not going to be denied the score to make it 12 nil with 11 minutes gone.
Newcastle began to find some form after their wake up call, gathering most of the possession and territory for the following five minutes. The 'men in black' were not giving in though as centre Andy Vilk intercepted a Newcastle pass to run in under the posts from 30 metres out. Fly-Half Shane Drahm added the conversion.
The restart, by Newcastle fly-half Phil Godman, did not make 10 metres resulting in a Wanderers' scrum back on the half-way line. Howard once again led the way from behind the back row, providing the pass to Diggin who travelled a further 20 metres to send in full-back Oriol Ripol. Drahm converted again taking the score to 26 nil going into the second quarter.
The Northampton and Bedford forwards continued to show their dominance as Newcastle scrums were repeatedly awarded to the home team as they turned through the 180-degree mark. The Wanderers then began to make mistakes as Newcastle applied the pressure. The home defence kept their fellow Northern Conference side out for several minutes before a driving maul led to No 8 Tom McLaren scoring.
The Wanderers recovered well from this replying quickly through Vilk for his second try of the evening. Drahm was rewarded with a well-deserved rest when Ben Russell took over the kicking duties. Newcastle ended the stronger team of the half as they applied pressure on the Wanderers. This led to a try through wing Bradley Hills on the stroke of half-time leaving the score at 33-10.
The Wanderers began the second half in determined mood but were brought to an abrupt halt with flanker Rob Hunter being sent to the sin-bin for a professional foul. Newcastle made use of the extra man scoring their third try through flanker Ben Woods.
The Wanderers picked themselves up once again though defending well on their own line to avoid a further score. It was the turn of replacement John Golding to show his grit by barging straight into the Newcastle defenders twice within a short space of time.
Newcastle were not to be denied their flow however with wing Ollie Phillips running straight through a gap in the Wanderers' defence to score. Their possession continued going into the final quarter as they ended their tally through replacement No 8 Sean Tomes. The conversion was successful this time bringing the visitors' score within sight of the Wanderers at 33-27.
The home side regained possession through a charged down kick by Diggin. The Newcastle try scorer Tomes was then sin-binned for a professional foul but the Wanderers began to make errors instead of making use of their advantage. This was short lived though as the Wanderers regained the territory but were held up over the line. The resulting scrum five metres out saw Howard once again take the ball from the back for hat-trick hero Vilk to round off his personal haul of points. Russell added the conversion to leave the final score at Wanderers 40 Newcastle 27.
Teams:
Wanderers - Ripol (Jones 40mins); Mansfield*, Binham, Vilk, Diggin; Drahm (Russel 36mins), Howard (cc); Ross* (Sturgess 40mins), Richmond (Miles 40mins), Taumoepeau (Golding 30mins), O'Donoghue, J Phillips, Hunter (Williams 54mins), Soden (Snape 54mins), McNamee (cc).
Newcastle IIs - T Wilkinson (Flood 40mins); Hills (Hooper 49mins), Laycock, M Wilkinson (c), O Phillips; Godman, Richardson (Phelan 50mins); J Williams (Wilson 40mins), Isaacson (Mackie 50mins), Kalman (J Williams 70mins), Buist, Parling, Woods, Williamson (Irwin 15mins), McLaren (Tomes 50mins).
*denotes Bedford player
Scorers:
Wanderers - Tries: McNamee, Diggin, Vilk(3), Ripol; Cons: Drahm (4), Russell.
Newcastle IIs - Tries: McLaren, Hills, Woods, O Phillips, Tomes; Con: Godman.
Yellow cards:
Hunter
Tomes
Attendance:
100
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
