In preparation for the oncoming season in Yorkshire 2 league, Northallerton RUFC men’s senior squad took to the road away to Barnard Castle RUFC for a friendly fixture. As part of their club’s 50th anniversary celebrations Castle were hosting both Northallerton and Richmondshire RUFC in a feast of rugby on a sweltering summer’s afternoon. North took the opportunity to make the most of the festivities by putting on a bus trip for the squad of very mixed experience players. Fielding a number of new faces to the side, it seemed a good time to test out how well the preparations were going having seen good numbers down to training each week.

At the kick off of play it appeared as though North’s minds were fixed on the after-match antics and the hosts quickly broke through the visiting defence to score an early try much to the delight of the home crowd. This was followed by another score in a similar fashion, using the fitness of their players to keep the tempo high and catch North off guard. Closing out the first quarter of the match as they had started it, Barnard Castle were eager to get over the try line again and showed a consistency in approach that the visitors had no answer for. At the first quarter break, Castle held a convincing 21-0 lead and seemed dominant in the game. A few words of encouragement from the Northallerton coaching staff though was all that was needed to snap the lad’s attention back to the job at hand and they roared back into the game by showing their strength in the close carries to begin with before moving the ball into some of their pacey backs to exploit the wider channels.
Several tries were scored in a flurry of excitement for the spectators with North claiming four of them over the next two quarters of the match.
As the game went into the last quarter of the match, the enthusiasm of the home support proved to be a decisive factor in spurring the team on in spite of the energy sapping weather. With a last try to add to a few penalty kicks they managed to subdue an, at times rampant, running Northallerton side to take the victory with a final score of Barnard Castle 36 – Northallerton 28. A big thank you to Barnard Castle for hosting, the festivities and carnival atmosphere after the match made for a terrific day out. Many thanks also to the referee for officiating the match.

It's not often that a team gets a five day turn around at the amateur level however, North showed that they can cut it with the European sides and made the short trip up the road to play Darlington RFC in a rare Thursday evening fixture. Whilst the previous game had seen a wide range of experience in the side, the quick turn around favoured mostly the younger members of the team whilst the older players recovered from either the game or the bus trip. Featuring a host of players from North’s junior section moving up to get a taste of senior rugby it was always going to be a challenge for the visitors to meld together as a squad in the face of tough opposition from Darlington.
Kicking off in the evening twilight, North started positively and held their own for a good portion of the first quarter. Darlington were able to exploit a few pieces of indecision in defence to register a couple of early scores, however North hit back with one of their own from veteran prop Paul Dixon who has clearly taken the crowd’s chants of “one more year” to heart. Describing his try as “long distance”, Dicko has seems to have high hopes for his tally this year. Unfortunately for North, this boost of confidence wasn’t enough to form the staging post for a comeback and Darlington continued to exude control on the fixture to notch a final score of Darlington 54- Northallerton 14. A useful experience for North’s younger players and timely reminder to senior players of the value of the fitness training with still a couple of weeks to go until the start of the season. Many thanks to Darlington RFC for hosting especially on a Thursday evening and the to referee for officiating.

Northallerton RUFC are back in action on Saturday 6th September with both senior men’s teams away to Bridlington RUFC, a new entrant into the Yorkshire two league this year. All supporters encouraged to join for the day out to the coast. The first home game of the season will be against Bradford and Bingley RUFC on the following weekend.

For any readers wanting to join the club this season, please see our social media pages for more information. The men train on Tuesday and Thursday 7pm, the ladies train on Wednesday 7pm and the juniors play on Saturday 10am. All ages and abilities welcome.