A break weekend from the league fixtures meant that the cup competitions took centre stage for North. The men’s first XV played at home hosting Westoe RUFC, a team not often visiting the Lodge in recent times. The ladies’ first XV travelled away to play Novocastrians’ ladies second XV in the fourth round of their Women’s Junior Cup competition after defeating Old Brodleians in the previous round last week.

The ladies made the journey up the A1 to face off against Novocastrians ladies’ second XV. The enthusiasm of the team to play fast attacking rugby seemed evident from the off as they started with a bang, and a big one at that, as prop Amy Pointon thundered through the home defence, swatting aside tacklers to open the scoring for the day. Working with a cohesive team spirit, the ball was moved about with a fluidity
that opened gaps across the pitch. Cara Williams, playing at outside centre on this occasion, ran a great line clean through a gap and scored the teams’ second try inside five minutes. Fly half Ellie Readman kicked the conversion to extend the lead. Readman followed this up with a try of her own, demonstrating her footballing skills to latch onto a loose ball dislodged in the tackle from Laura Isherwood, kick it through and regather to score.
The game continued to open up as North’s confidence grew and the home side realised quite what they were in for. Novos to their credit never looked daunted, nor did their resolve waver, however the class that North showed proved too much in most facets of the game. Silky offloading from the front row forwards put Abby Rollings through for another try before Williams completed her hat-trick inside the first fifteen minutes and Readman doubled her tally to two as North showed no mercy to the hosts. Readman kicked the conversions for all four tries to keep the score board ticking over.
This constant stream of tries made the first half fly by for the visitors. At the half time break North held a resounding lead of 0-45 whilst Novos had barely seen the ball for more than a few seconds at a time.
On the resumption of play, the break had done nothing to slow North’s momentum, and they went straight back to work battering the defences of the home side with hefty carries from the forwards whilst the backs read the play and kicked cleverly into space to increase the pressure on the hosts. Readman was the next player to complete a hat-trick of tries, scoring her third not long after the half start. Gina Fothergill made sure her name was included on the scoresheet with two tries of her own after contributing some big carries that sent defenders flying all game.
Williams was relishing the space afforded to her in her cameo as an outside centre and partnered well with Isherwood who was passing her the ball into space at every opportunity. Cutting through the defence yet again, Williams pinned her ears back and raced away to the try line to score her fourth try of the game. Whether Readman and Williams were having a competition of their own was for the spectators to decide as, not long after watching her teammate score, Readman managed to pick up a loose ball, side stepped several defenders and sprinted clear to dot the ball down for her fourth try of the day as well. Having added the last two conversions, Readman gave herself a very impressive points tally for the day and brought the final score for the match to Novocastrians 0 – Northallerton 74. The hosts were unlucky not to get a score and at times threatened the visitors’ try line with serious intent. Playing with heart and determination they deserved more out of the result; however, on the day it was North’s full team approach and seamless attack that proved too much to contend with.
Player of the match was awarded to Cara Williams, forward of the match to Kate Easton and back of the match was awarded to Laura Isherwood. Many thanks to Novocastrians for their generous hospitality, to the referee for officiating the game and the all the travelling supporters who made the journey to cheer on the team.

The men’s first XV hosted Westoe RFC at Brompton Lodge in their cup competition, not knowing too much about a side that North don’t often play. To this end the hosts knew that a fast start was needed to get a foothold in the game and this they delivered. Hard carrying and tough shoulders from the forwards put North onto the front foot, creating space out wide to ship the ball the winger Ross Easdon who accelerated away from his opposite player before kicking ahead to beat the cover defence, gathering the kind bounce and diving over the try line for the game’s opening try. Westoe had brought a sizable front row with them, enough to hold their own at scrum time early on in the game. It was the speed of North’s back row though who were making the significant difference, slowing the ball at the breakdown and making life difficult for the visitors to gin any momentum in attack.
Easdon was unlucky not to pick up a second try mid-way through the first half as a grubber kick through from full back Jack Tart was bundled into touch on the try line just as Easdon was about to grasp at it. A knock-on in the bundling was given in North’s favour and from the resulting attacking scrum, the power of North’s pack became too much for Westoe to handle and they marched their opposite numbers back the five metres to the try line, allowing number eight Freddie Bulman the chance to dot the ball down.
Westoe were eager to get points on the board and, sensing that North’s defence was unlikely to yield easily, took the option of an easy three points in front of the posts from a penalty to get them off the mark. This proved the be the catalyst the visitors needed and they began to build an attacking phase that culminated in a try as their centre found a soft shoulder to cut through from close range. The conversion was kicked to bring the scores level at ten points a-piece. Despite North dominating the earlier exchanges of the match, Westoe had stuck to their task and found themselves with a chance to go into the break in front courtesy of a kickable penalty on the stroke of half time. Their fly half duly converted the opportunity that meant the visitors held a three point lead at the break.
The momentum was with the away side now and they took full advantage of it, harrying and battering North back at every turn. An attacking lineout close to North’s line put the hosts on edge and, in their rush to close the distance when the ball came out, left a space behind the line to kick into. A clever grubber kick bounced up in front of the chasing Westoe player who gathered on the run to dot down. Barley a few minutes had gone by before North were in the ascendancy once again, shipping the ball left and right, carrying with intent. A rumble from the forwards took the ball to within a yard of the yard before it was passed out to Tart who used the sizable distraction of Phil Swall on his shoulder to throw a dummy pass and scoot over the line for a try under the posts. Tart kicked his own conversion to narrow the deficit to one point.

Much of the second half from this point was devoted to the study of scrummaging with brief interludes to allow for a lineout. Westoe were afforded another opportunity to kick a penalty in front of the posts and obliged once again to extend their lead to four points, giving a little breathing space to their team. Resolute North defence spoiled several attacks from the visitors even on their own try line. When they were in possession, a reciprocal chance to kick at goal from a difficult angle saw the ball drift away to the right, leaving North with only a few minutes to go and a try needed.
Attacking lineout after attacking scrum, all in the Westoe half saw North repelled through tenacious defence. It was only as the clock counted down to the last couple of minutes that, after several phases of patient build up, North passed the ball out wide to Easdon again who, with no space to run into managed to beat one defender on the inside before offloading out of the tackle to hooker Seamus Talbot who was running a superb supporting line. The conversion drifted wide but no matter, North now held the lead. A last attempt to snatch the game saw Westoe foray deep into the home side’s half, hammering on the goal line for all their worth but no way through was to be found. The game ended with hands in the mouth and a final score of Northallerton 24 – Westoe 21.
A fantastic spectacle of rugby to watch and one that came right down to the wire. Many thanks to Westoe rugby club for travelling to play to fixture, to the referee for officiating the match and to all the supporters and volunteers at the club who help make the day happen.

For any readers who would like to play rugby in Northallerton, please contact the club on social media or come down to the clubhouse. The men train on Tuesday and Thursday 7pm, the ladies train on Wednesday 7pm and the juniors play on Sunday 10am. All ages and abilities welcome.