Looking to bounce back to winning ways, Bishop Auckland U13s’ side faced Redcar on a clear, bright and windless day on Sunday 23rd November, at the West Mills playing Fields. However a completely different game was played to the one that was expected by players, manager and coaches.
Redcar were unable to field a full 15 and arrived with only 13 players. In the spirit of the game, those Bishop players identified as replacements were initially ‘volunteered’ on a rotational basis to make the opposition numbers up.
The game started with James lofting a spinning drop out to land just over the allotted 10m distance, being caught by Redcar. Luke, sprinting through, ripped the ball on the charge, tucked the ball under his arm and sprinted in a gazelle like fashion to score his first try within 30 seconds of kick-off.
After Redcar dropped out to restart the game, Luke again picked up the ball, who passed to Josh, who drove himself down the centre of the field, taking the score to 10-0 within 5 minutes. Unfortunately two of Redcar’s players were injured defending this and had to leave the field. Two more Bishop players now joined the ranks of Redcar’s team to keep the game alive.
The next 10 minutes saw Bishop begin to dominate the game and Aidan got his first try of the season. Other notable events of the first half saw Jack Woodward joining the line, dancing his way through several players, with Jordan, James and Ben scoring tries.
With the team rotating players every 15 minutes, the boys found themselves playing in the Redcar scrum one minute, then in their own back line the next. This allowed players such as Alex to show their ability at running with the ball and opened up opportunities for Euan and Liam to score tries; Jordan and James also picked up their second tries.
Although Bishop dominated the game, Redcar were able to run in two late tries.
Final score Bishop 74-12 Redcar.
After the game both managers applauded the players for making a game of it, keeping club rugby alive. Special thanks were said by Redcar’s coach, who named Luke as man-of-the-match.
Bishop Auckland's local community newspaper.
