DISAPPOINTING

After last weeks superb performance against Rotherham, Northallerton 1st team travelled to lowly lying Burley with high hopes of continuing their good form. However, due to unavailability’s and a couple of late cry-offs, North ended up putting in a poor performance to lose by 19-13.

The first half was relatively close, with both teams matching each other in the forwards, and the backs not getting much clean ball. North’s Dougie Mulholland at fly half was doing his utmost to get the dangerous looking Rhys Kilbride involved but Burleys flankers were quick to close down the space, negating most of the attacking options North had. It was the home team however that took the lead when a deep probing kick from the Burley number ten went into touch just inside North’s 22. North then failed to win their own lineout, and in the ensuing melee, the Burley scrum half somehow managed to evade numerous tacklers to sneak over for a try. The Burley fly half just managed to score the conversion from out wide. North bounced straight back and pressured the home team into making numerous mistakes. It was from a quick tap penalty from James Read that, released Kilbride to race thirty yards to score under the posts, and Kilbride converted his own kick. The game then regressed back to a battle of the forwards with neither team gaining any advantage. Half time 7-7

The home team began to show the advantages of having five rolling subs in the second half, constantly resting their powerful forwards with equally as good substitutes. North, however had no such luxury as they only travelled with two subs and were starting to feel the pressure as the game wore on. It was through one of the home team’s subs that Burley took the lead again, when following a 20 yard rolling maul, the Burley second row touched down out wide. Ten minutes later Mulholland got North back into the game with a long range penalty from just inside the home teams half that sailed over for three points. In the last 10 minutes the home team seemed to be growing even more in confidence and stature which resulted in another forward orientated try for them when their flanker went over the line following numerous ruck recycles. On 80 minutes, and with North losing by 19-10, Mulholland gave North a bonus point with another long range penalty to finish the game at 19-13