Round Two for the Ladies

North’s ladies were the occupants of the first team pitch this weekend, headlining a double fixture with the men’s second XV at the Lodge. With the first XV given an away walk over against Halifax due to them not being able to field a team, there were plenty of players down at the club ahead of the annual Oktoberfest social in the evening.

For the second time in seven days, North’s ladies were up against Wensleydale, this time in a league fixture and hoping to build on a strong performance last week. North started the game slowly, to which the visitors took full advantage, shipping the ball out to their pacey winger who ran in from distance to score the opening try. This was just what North needed to wake themselves up and get them alert. Play resumed and the forwards arrived on the scene with big tackles from Gina Fothergill, Abby Robinson and Sarah Jayne Pritchard leading a more organised defensive effort. The words from coach Robbo under the posts obviously sunk in as it lead to a long spell of the game which was kept scoreless. Whilst there were missed tackles and little lack of cohesion amongst the home side, the scramble defence held firm with someone always on hand to stymie any breaks made. The back three of Sarah Rowe, Issy Andrew and Emma Lawson more than earning their keep.
Any time spent attacking was cut short through hard defence from Wensleydale forcing handling errors from North. The latter stages of the first half were spent with the hosts defending their line, however Wensleydale were able to score two well taken tries, one out wide and the other from a ferocious charge for the line by their replacement prop. The half time score was 0-17.
The second half was largely a mirror of the first. Wensleydale managed another 17 points and North seemed to struggle with getting phases together. The team’s spirit held firm though and they were able to battle right up to the final whistle with some terrific defensive performances, full back Lawson keeping the score board down with several try saving tackles. The final score for the match was Northallerton 0 – Wensleydale 34. North’s forward of the match award was given to Abby Robinson, the back of the match to Sarah Rowe and the player of the match award given to Emma Lawson.
The next fixture for the ladies will be on October 22nd away at Durham City. Thank you to the referee for officiating the game and to Wensleydale for travelling in such good numbers.

The second XV hosted Sedgefield in a rearranged game at the Lodge. Having had some difficult score lines but spells of good play in recent weeks, North were hoping to string together a more consistent performance across the whole game. The benefits of fielding a relatively settled team this season have been starting to come to fruition for what is a very mixed squad of age and experience. These benefits showed in spades against Sedgefield who fielded a very mixed squad themselves. North looked to have shored up some of the leaks in their defence that have been exposed in recent weeks to keep Sedgefield out from their try line and attacked well with cohesion and speed to score plenty of tries that boosted morale in the team after enduring some difficult results so far. Jack Radcliffe, Fraser Pickthall and Nathan Bishoprick scoring a bagful of tries between them. The final score was Northallerton 84 – Sedgefield 0. Man of the match was given to Phil Swall. Thank you to the referee for officiating a fast-moving game. Many thanks also to all the volunteers at the club who helped make the day happen.

For anyone wanting to the play rugby in Northallerton, training for the men is on Tuesday and Thursday 7pm, the ladies train on Wednesday 7pm and the juniors play on Sunday 10am. Please contact the club on social media for more information.