Bishop Auckland Rugby Club’s 1st team were at home to Whitby on a sunny afternoon in their most recent fixture. Ideal conditions for the spectators but a bit too warm for the players.
Whitby had a couple of decent players but lacked any structure to their play.
Bishop, on the other hand, were controlling the phases and moving the ball nicely.
The ball was moved out quickly to outside centre Lance Oliver, who burst through the Whitby defence with his electric pace to score under the posts. Tombling converted 7-0.
Bishop now had the measure of Whitby, who could not contain Bishop’s flowing rugby, and the next three tries came in quick succession scored by hooker Leigh Cox, winger James Greathead and second row Jack Tindle, all converted by Tombling to take the half time score to 28-0.
With the bonus point secured, Bishop were looking to kick on and score more points, however Whitby – to their credit – defended better and it wasn’t until ten minutes into the second half that stand-off Tombling saw a gap and ran through to score under the posts, which he then converted 35-0.
The next try came from great work in the line out, where second row Paul Fletcher ripped the ball from his opposite number and set up a maul which offloaded to flanker Michael Beach, who ran 30 metres to score under the posts – 42-0.
Bishop’s next score came from a penalty, which Tombling converted to take his tally from the game to 22 points.
Whitby then stemmed the flow of tries for a short while but never really offered anything in attack, and Bishop were on the counter attack moving the ball smoothly through their backs for full-back Zac Hole to score in the corner. With the conversion missed, Bishop finished the game 50-0.
This was a confidence boosting performance against limited opposition, but Bishop played well and never let Whitby have a sniff of the game.
Final score, Bishop Auckland 1st 50 – Whitby 0.
Bishop Auckland's local community newspaper.
