WIN AT LAST

Northallerton hosted fellow strugglers Old Modernians at home and found their first win of the season, in a hard fought 33-6 win.

North started of confidently with Luck and Bulman dictating the midfield and bringing the forwards into play when needed. It was through the forwards where North’s first try came. Lonsdale followed up on a strong run from chunky hooker Rhodes to pinch the ball off him 2 yards out and score under the posts. North then lost their way and their discipline, especially when Lonsdale got yellow carded for being repeatedly offside. This let Mods back into the game, and they scored two easy penalties. The game then entered a period of stalemate, with neither team able to put any fluidity in there play and also making plenty of mistakes. North held out to half time though. 7-6

Then just after half time Rhodes was sin binned for an innocuous off the ball incident. This put plenty of pressure on the home team but stout defending by North’s backs, especially from Marc ‘Elvis’ Walden and Iain O’Townsend saved the day on numerous occasions. Even when Rhodes returned from his much needed rest, North were still struggling to secure any ball. The introduction of a young and slim line prop Nicholas Bainbridge though, changed the game. With North dominating more in the scrummage, it enabled the back rows Hopson and Sanderson to clean up all loose ball and set a platform for number 8 Duffus to make numerous rampaging charges. This resulted in club captain Dixon getting his third try of the season – a career highest! Duffus then also scored two tries, as the opposition tired and could not handle his pace and power. To finish the game off, sneaky scrum half Smith scored an opportunistic try by running and diving through a Mods 2nd row players legs! Danny Luck kicked all but one conversion (which was in front of the posts) to cap a fine all round performance. Final score 33-6.