U14 - MOWDEN VICTORIOUS DESPITE BELOW PAR PERFORMANCE

With a number forwards either absent or sick, Mowden looked like starting the game with a bare 8 forwards until Ryan Hall arrived just as the kick-off whistle blew, having made a scenic tour of the neighbourhood to find the ground.

Mowden started well winning turnover ball from the kick-off as the forwards rucked over the Billingham players. Jonny Teague made a few metres before setting the ball back. Gordon Thompson switched play to the right; wrong footing the defence and good passing to Joe Craggs saw him score in the right corner. Tamer Fuat’s good effort for the conversion, kicking into the wind, just fell short.

From the restart Billingham won possession and went through a number of phases of play with forwards and backs but were not able to pierce the Mowden defence. Dom Gibson and Callum Oakes were tackling fiercely to halt the forwards drives and Jonny and Tamer were equal to the Billingham centres. Eventually the Mowden pressure told and Max Harrison won turnover ball. Mark Wilson spotted a blindside opportunity and presented Mark Harsley with his first chance to stretch his legs. He duly obliged making 30 yards before presenting the ball to the support. Billingham were out of position and Max took his opportunity to score. Tamer converted to increase the lead to 0-12.

Tamer almost scored after some great backs and forwards combinations saw the ball swing from left to right and back again but the ball was adjudged to be held up. But it didn’t take long for Mowden to amend the situation. The front row of Connor Noble, James Maclintock and Simon Shepherd were beginning to dominate the opposition, pushing the opponents’ scrum back and giving Sam Lorimer and Max the chance to put the Billingham half-backs under real pressure. From a poor clearance Elliot Wanless charged into the attack, offloading to Jonny in the tackle. Jonny made good ground before the pack drove over the ball and set up a chance for John Payne, who didn’t need to be asked twice and ran through to score. Tamer duly converted.

Unfortunately, Mowden ended the half with 14 men as a seemingly innocuous tackle was rewarded with a yellow card. Mowden were clearly put off by the sin-binning and looked uncertain in their play. Billingham took advantage of this and poor tackling allowed a tap penalty to become a try as Billingham’s best payer ran through 3 tackles to score close to the posts.

Despite scoring three tries Mowden definitely looked below par. The forwards were doing well in terms of winning ball but running across the field and slow and sometimes inaccurate passing allowed the Billingham defence to regroup and snuff out promising situations as the Mowden backs ran out of room.

Half time Billingham 7 Mowden 19

Changes were made in the second half with Ollie Cooper, Aidan Smith and Matty Warr moving into the backs. With some straighter running and inside support the Mowden team began to get back on top.

A good run down the right hand side saw Ollie put into touch on the 10m line. Simon pinched the Billingham throw in and the pack drove ten metres downfield. The ball was released and quicker ball from Gordon gave Mark W a chance to move it down the line to Matty who scored in the corner. A good conversion attempt was just short.

Callum was next to score. Good support play and decent offloading in the tackle gave Aidan a chance to run and he was just held up short of the line. Callum picked up and drove over, almost taking the goalposts with him! Joe, taking over kicking duties from Tamer, converted to make the score 7-31.

The Mowden pack were definitely on top of the scrum and made life very difficult for the Billingham scrum-half as he had to dig ball out of a retreating scrum. Ryan Hall was having a particularly good game as hooker forming a good partnership with Connor and Simon. This forced slow ball down the line and with Joe, Max and new flanker Jonny on their heels it was tough for the Billingham backs. Matty got hold of his opposite number and the ball rolled free. Ollie picked up and ran in the try.

The next score was made in a similar fashion with the forwards doing the hard work in the scrums to win good ball on the Mowden 10m line. Gordon passed to Mark W who spotted a gap and dashed through gaining 15 metres. Then Dom and Sam drove over to make the ball available. Mark H gained good ground as centre before releasing to Joe to score his second try of the game.

The next try showed the power of good support play with a move started by Tamer inside Mowden’s half. Support on the inside and on the outside by Elliot, Ollie and Aidan saw Tamer complete the move he had started. The score moved on to 7-46. Callum was withdrawn from the field with an embarrassing injury. Dom replaced him.

To give Billingham credit they never gave up. Mowden’s tackling was not up to its normal level and Billingham created a number of scoring chances and it was only the last-man tackles of Elliot, Matty, Mark H and others that kept Billingham’s score static.

Ollie scored the final try of the game. Elliot, up in the line made inroads into the Billingham half before setting Mark H off on the last of his many good runs of the day. He was only stopped by 4 Billingham defenders but that created the space for Ollie to run a great line through the defensive line to score. Tamer converted with the last kick of the game.

Final score Billingham 7 Mowden 53

Although this was an emphatic win, the fluent back-play that has become our trademark was missing today and some slack tackling would have been punished more severely on another day. Next match is home to Bishop Auckland who are an improving side. We will need to be back to top form both defensively and in attack to redress the poor performance earlier in the season.