Rotherham Away

Northallerton made the long trip to face Rotherham Phoenix this week. A couple of returning backs bolstered the ranks and allowed the deputising forwards the chance to return tot he more familiar surroundings of the pack. The majestic sight of Dicko warming up inspired one spectator to claim 'Dicko's legs go on forever' and it was universally agreed that he would make a very handsome woman.
Despite the long journey it was North who looked the livelier of the two sides in the opening exchanges and soon established good field position. 7 minutes in and the North forwards were already on the front foot forcing Rotherham to concede a penalty 5 metres out. Quick as a flash Patrick Hebblethwaite took the penalty and darted over the line in the left corner to make it 0-5 After another 7 minutes North stole the first of many line outs and drive the maul 10 metres. Then, having conceded a penalty North were pinned in their own 22 by the Rotherham stand off's kick to touch. Despite it being a fine kick the Rotherham players were dismayed as they had yet to win a line out. North won against the head but were soon turned over in the loose and were caught off side in the next phase. The Rotherham stand off slotted the penalty to make it 3-5.
25 mins in and Hebblethwaite broke down the blind side after another powerful North scrum but they couldn't make the pressure count and came away from the Rotherham 22 with nothing. Joe Osleton was making his presence felt around the breakdown and at one point he held off 3 Rotherham defenders at a ruck, his stance was so relaxed it was more akin to a man standing at a bar enjoying a beer than someone in the middle of a ruck on the rugby field. 2 minutes before half time North were defending their line and after several phases of strong tackling they forced the Rotherham mistake. Jedd Bainbridge cleared the lines from the penalty to give North a line out in the Rotherham half. North won the line out and set up a driving maul, when this maul came to a halt Hebblethwaite took the ball and saw a gap in behind the Rotherham defence. A perfectly weighted kick through bounced kindly and Hebblethwaite was able to beat the chasing full back to the ball. As he dived to touch the ball down however he decided to test the quality of the 'sureguard' post protectors by wrapping his entire body around the post with a resounding crash! After a long period of treatment Pat was pleased to note the post protectors were of good quality and he could carry on the game. Ian Macleod added the extras to make the score 3-12 at half time.
8 minutes into the second half North set up another driving maul on the right and Hebblethwaite was there again to touch down for his hat trick. Macleod converted again 3-19. This saw the introduction of Gary Eden for Joe Osleton and Jonny Baker for JP Coyne. Minutes later a scuffle broke out and Lee Peake was on the wrong end of a Rotherham players fist a couple of times. The referee decided the Rotherham player deserved a red card for his attempts at making Peake a bit prettier much to the annoyance of the Roth crowd. The game went a bit flat after this with neither team taking control. It took until around 70 minutes for Rotherham to put North under pressure in their own 22. This time Rotherham made the pressure count and scored the try. The conversion was good 10-19. With minutes to go Rotherham won another penalty just inside the North half and decided to go for the posts to get within 7 and claim the losing bonus point, the kick fell short however and North broke down the field. From a ruck on the left touch line Hebblethwaite made another of his trademark sniping runs down the line to touch down in the corner for the try scoring bonus point, and more importantly stretching his lead in the top try scorer race by some distance.

North's 2nd XV hosted Billingham this week and with the return of some familiar faces in the backs division they were able to come out on top 32-20. Credit must be given to Billingham who made the journey to North despite only having 12 players available. With 3 North players donning the green and white of Billingham the game went ahead anyway. Doug Mullholland had clearly been practicing his dummy passes all summer and used them to score 2 tries however with his hat trick in his grasp (and the prospect of having to buy everyone a beer) he selflessly passed the ball when he could have touched it down. The try scorers were Doug 2, P.Dennison 2, Fishy 1 and Renno 1.

This week the 1st XV are at home to Baildon which promises to be a close game
The 2nd XV make the short journey to Thirsk in the local derby match.