DMPRFC 29 v DARLINGTON RFC 5

Although the pitch was as good as ever considering the amount of rainfall recently, the drizzling rain made handling difficult and as a result errors in that department were prevalent from both sides.

It was Darlington RFC who started the game on the attack through their close quarter inter-passing, pick and drives in a 10-man rugby spell which typified their whole game plan. However, once this was repelled by some ‘up close and personal’ defence, it must have been clear to all watching, that Darlington having shown their hand, had little else to offer.

Rob Eatough started the Park scoring, outstripping the cover defence and scoring under the posts, allowing Ritchie Young the easy afters.

Another try by Andy Pugh soon followed, as he found himself free in open play, he cut to the corner flag and over the whitewash, scoring against his old club. The conversion from wide out was a difficult proposition, but Ritchie Young managed the extras with an accurate strike.

The last score before oranges was a brilliant individual effort from Matt Lister, who set off on a mazy run from inside his own half, eluding tacklers and skinning the covering defence to touchdown under the posts. The conversion was easy this time for Ritchie Young, who took the extra two points to allow Park to lead 21 - 0 at the break.

Referee Steve Havery had occasion to warn the teams frequently about over aggressive altercations and in fact after twenty minutes, a Darlington RFC player was sin-binned for forgetting the ball and trying to wear Ryan Painter’s shirt. However, it was just the usual derby ‘handbags at five paces’ which was dealt with pretty well by the official.

After oranges, it was thought that normal service would be resumed, however Darlington put together a spirited fight back, again through their bullocking forwards, which paid dividends when they were awarded a try for their efforts. The Darlington back line were always second best in this encounter, but the forwards were a handful at times.

When it appeared that the game was secured,Park sent on replacements which seemed to have a somewhat disrruptive effect on the balance of the team, but composure was soon resumed after an initial blip.

Replacement Luke Monument suffered the same sin-binning fate as a Darlington counterpart soon after his introduction to the game, which added to the disrruption in the home side

Park also contributed eight more points to their tally in the second half , with a try by Dan Squire and a penalty by Ritchie Young.