The ladies and juniors keep marching on

A rest weekend for the men allowed the ladies to take centre stage at the Lodge and what a show they put on against Guisborough RUFC. The junior’s U15 team took to the road to face Darlington Mowden Park.

North’s ladies managed to arrange a friendly fixture at home against Guisborough RUFC to keep the momentum going ahead of the remaining three league fixtures this season. Kicking off, North started uncharacteristically slowly, allowing the visitors to maintain possession and phases of play. This forced a significant spell of defensive play from North as the game played out in the middle of the field. After wrestling the ball back into their own hands, North were able to string their own phases of play together which eventually allowed prop Amy Pointon to power through the tackles with a strong carry and put the first points on the board. Fullback Ali O’Brien added the conversion. This seemed to wake North up and from the restart fly half Trinity Earnshaw displayed an excellent show-and-go to race away to the opposition line looking certain to score. A last-ditch tackle from Guisborough held the ball up short of the try line and looked to have saved the try. Scrum half Emily Richardson, who is so often quick to the ball, reached the breakdown first and bamboozled several defenders to dot down over the line for the second try of the game. The game followed in the same fashion for the next period, consistent carries from the forwards punching holes in the Guisborough defence and some almost unstoppable line breaks from centre Shauna Lawson created space for others on the pitch. Winger Lucy Robinson was the main beneficiary of this space, outsprinting her opposite player to the try line to score after some slick handling from the rest of the backs. Following shortly on from this was back rower SJ Pritchard who found another gap in the visitor’s defence to score on the stroke of half time to send the hosts into the break 25-0 up.
The second half was unfortunately disrupted early on due to an injury to a Northallerton player who the club wishes a speedy recovery to. After moving pitches to accommodate her treatment the game was able to restart and number eight Abby Robinson dominated some of the early collisions, gaining ground for her back row partner Pritchard to go in to score again before adding a try of her own to the score sheet. Guisborough were defending heartily but numerous phases on the back foot were beginning to take their toll on energy levels and gaps starting to appear. Another great spell of possession saw Abby Robinson handing off defenders left, right and centre to be finally stopped just short of the try line. Quick thinking from hooker Kate Easton allowed her to dive over from close range and extend North’s lead. Credit must be given to Guisborough who, despite the ever-mounting score line, played with relentless enthusiasm and continued to prod and poke the
host’s defence when they had possession. Spotting a gap in the middle of the field, the outside centre put on some footwork and glided through to score. In reply to this retort, North managed to have the last say in the game, O’Brien taking advantage of a large space down the blindside of a ruck and ran through untouched to add to her impressive try scoring tally this season. The match finished with a final score Northallerton 45 – Guisborough 5. Forward of the match was awarded to Kate Easton and Amy Pointon jointly, back of the match was awarded to Trinity Earnshaw and opposition player of the match was given to Shauna Lawson. A big thank you to referee Iain Swall for stepping in at short notice to officiate the match and to Guisborough for travelling with such good support. Thanks also to the many volunteers at the club who helped make the day happen.

The under 15’s of Northallerton rugby club made the short away journey to local team Darlington Mowden Park, keen to continue their winning form this season. The game was played with an intensity that kept all supporters from both sides well entertained as both teams set about playing an expansive game, looking to find space both in the tight and out wide. With tries flowing in from the hosts and the visitors the game ended with a final score of Northallerton 41 – Mowden Park 14. Another great win for the boys who’ve enjoyed a successful season so far. Many thanks to Mowden for their generous hospitality and to all the spectators and supporters of the teams.
Our under 13s also had their first match of the season this Sunday in a 3-way mini festival with Ripon and York. They certainly found the secon halves of the games more appealing and grew into each game well. Their match against York saw several tries and some strong running and great offloading, hopefully a sign of things to come in the future for this team! Thank you to York and Ripon for travelling over to Brompton Lodge to get our boys out on the pitch!