Sat 26 Oct 2019, 15:00
Match Report 26 October 2019
Darlington 46-40 Gosforth
Gosforth travelled to Darlington after the venue was reversed to avoid a clash with the football club in February. Darlington kicked off on a calm sunny day and took the lead after 4 minutes when one of their locks seemed to take Gosforth by surprise with a run down the blind side. A missing kicking tee led to their kicker taking a hurried drop kick conversion and failing but Darlington led by 5-0. They could have increased this lead a few minutes later but a winger knocked on when looking likely to score.
Gosforth finally managed to get some possession and applied pressure on the Darlington line and Matty Struthers, making his seasonal debut, forced his way over with Devon Gurr converting to give the visitors a 7-5 lead. Fly half, Gurr was forced to leave the field soon after following a blow to the head. After 21 minutes, Struthers, now at fly half, made a break on halfway and Marc Burton was on hand to dot down. Struthers missed the conversion but the score stood at 12-5.
The rest of the half belonged to the home side who added 3 more tries, 2 converted, to secure a bonus point and a 24-12 lead.
From the restart by Gosforth, Darlington fielded the ball and ran it back the length of the pitch for a 5th try and a 29-12 lead. 5 minutes into the half, James Weaver made a break on the halfway line and, skipper, Kieron Locke was on hand to take the pass and touch down under the posts. Struthers converted for 29-19. The visitors were having more possession and from a penalty near the Darlington line, replacement scrum half, John Rooney took a quick tap and Andrew Camplejohn forced his way over to secure Gosforth’s 4 try bonus with Struthers adding the extras via a post. Score 29-26.
The pendulum swung again. A penalty awarded against Gosforth, plus an extra 10 metres, led to Darlington camping in the visitors’ 22 and, after some spirited defence, Gosforth finally ran out of tacklers and a converted try increased the lead to 36-26. 2 more unconverted tries took the home lead to 46-26 with just a few minutes remaining. A Struthers’ chip ahead was collected by Weaver for a try and an interception by Struthers saw him score under the posts. Both tries were converted to make the final score 46-40 in Darlington’s favour and a losing bonus point for Gosforth. With a few minutes more who knows.
Malcolm Bell.
