DURHAM CITY RFC 21 v DMPRFC 22

Literally, a game of two halves and the home side will think themselves unlucky to miss out by a single point, after a stirring last twenty minutes which saw them run out of time as they sniffed an upset.

The first half belonged to Mowden, scoring three tries and with the score at oranges of 0 – 17 down, the signs for the Hollow Drift faithful were not very good.

The visitors were the more lively and inventive in the first quarter with some invasive runs by the forwards, resulting in plenty of quick ball for the ever improving Marty Lithgo to distribute to his backline, who were well marshalled by Will Gough.

Mowden lost the services of Ross Finch early on in proceedings, who went off as a precautionary measure after a neck injury, forcing a reshuffle in the pack.

City defended very well, but were second best to the visiting forwards who gained the upper hand early at scrum and lineout time, with Ralph Appleby, Michael Forde and Grahame Seddon prevalent.

It was Robin Eatough who broke the deadlock with a try on fifteen minutes, after some telling pressure, he squeezed over in the corner. With the afters missed from wide out, Mowden resumed from the restart and continued to test the City defence.

Two further tries followed in quick succession, one from the workmanlike Grahame Seddon (pictured), who charged down a kick out of defence to outpace the kicker to the whitewash. The second after the Mowden backs made good use of the ball for Gavin Painter to ghost through a gap to score a try which he also converted.

At oranges, City had nothing to show for their efforts and gave no hint of what was about to follow.

Mowden changed the stand off, introducing Sam Errington to the game and Will Gough slotted in at fullback.

City too made changes and after the restart, honours were even until they forced a try after some good work by the forwards. The try was converted, but Mowden responded shortly afterwards, with James Knox shrugging off defenders to run in from twenty metres out.

So at 7 – 22, with sixty minutes gone the game seemed over for City, but the home side had other ideas and began to force their way into the game.

For the visitors, Danny Brown was replaced by Chris Bark and then Gary Beck went on for Chris Stronh at hooker.

City applied good forward pressure, especially at scrum time, completely reversing the visiting advantage of the first half.

Spurred on by their faithful supporters, City went on the offensive, scoring two good converted tries, the latter with one minute to go on the official’s watch.

City were hoping for some immediate possession and a little extra time from the restart, but it was not to be as they lost possession and the ball was bundled out into touch and the game was over.

City can take great credit for their second half display against a side from the league above and Mowden can think themselves lucky to have prevailed and a progression into the next round.