DICKO'S TAP PENALTY

Northallerton 1st team travelled to Old Otliensians again with a much changed team from last week, and ended up on the wrong side of a 20-14 defeat.

On a cold and blustery day, North started the game slowly and were punished with three unconverted tries in the first fifteen minutes. All three tries were relatively soft and could have been avoided with better tackling and commitment. The home team seemed to be growing in confidence, when suddenly from out of the blue, North’s Ian Duffus charged free from a maul at the half way line and raced away to score under the posts, Dan Luck kicking the conversion. The remainder of the half was fairly even with North struggling to make much ground due to the opposing wind, and Otliensians never using the wind proficiently enough. Half time 15-7

With North turning round only 8 points behind they felt confident of making a comeback. However the home team took a scrum against the head on North’s 5 metre line before shipping it out wide and evading 2 or 3 tacklers before going over. This severely dinted North’s confidence leaving them now 13 points behind and with an uphill struggle. North did however begin to dominate the scrummage until the referee began to penalise prop Nick Bainbridge for allegedly ‘boring in'!!!! Again it was Duffus who got North back into the game following an unorthodox quick tap penalty from Paul Dixon to send the flanker over for his second try. Again it was the trustworthy boot of Luck who kicked the conversion leaving the visitors only 6 points behind. Needing only a converted try to pinch the game North turned down the chance of 2 penalties to exert constant pressure on the home side for the final 10 minutes. There then followed a confusing and frustrating delay when firstly there seemed to be a shortage of rugby balls, then the Otliensians hooker was sin binned and his replacement had to be found on the 2nd team pitch. When the replacement finally walked to the waiting scrum, play could resume after a 10 minute delay. North had one more chance to score but unluckily dropped the ball at the decisive moment and the home team held out to earn the win.