Another fine day for rugby . The Lions travelled to McCracken Park in strong numbers , 24 in total . However Coach Jobson and 'Doc' Rowland were left unassisted by the hungover Lake , who having slept in decided to continue his binge from the balcony.
It was the home side who kicked off . A long kick into the Park 22 was taken by the gigantic figure of Nairn , who proceeded to rumble forward . From the ruck , Gilmore fed No8 Warren who offloaded to Phillips in the tackle . Quick ball and a dummy run by Jobson created space for Danilli . The former Argentinian U20 set off up the touch line , as he crossed halfway he kicked ahead for speedster Grove to chase . The fly half showed all his pace to win the foot race and touch down from his own hack on in the left corner . The only thing missing was an accompanying commentary from Cliff Morgan , what a score what a start !! 7-0.
Park scored again soon after . Henessey pinching line out ball , tapped down to hooker Pollock . Under pressure from his opposite number , Pollock reverse passed 'Fiji-style' to Gilmore , on to Jobson who carried straight and hard . Good ball presentation and the backs attacked to the right wing . Canadian Lenahan then sliced through the middle , supported by Danilli . Once again , quick ball and Phillips rumbled around the corner , passing to Sim who scored in the left corner . Grove nudged over the conversion . 14-0 , Park were on fire.
A third try soon followed . The Lions were dominating in attack and defence . This time it was the 'D' that forced Northern into holding on and conceding a penalty . The penalty was kicked from halfway into the opposition 22 . From the resulting line out , the Park forwards rumbled over the line , with the returning Pollock claiming the score . 19-0.
Unfortunately , Park weren't able to sustain the pressure . Park were a little guilty of playing too much rugby , at every opportunity , which had an affect on their defence . As they tired , the tackling became a little too high and there wasn't as much effort to tackle the opponent as there was to run with the ball !! Credit to Northern , back they came . A strong run from the 14 through 3/4 missed tackles , eventually saw 12 score in the corner . 19-5 HT
The start of the second half continued in similar fashion . Northern scored again to reduce the deficit to 19-12 , game on ! Whilst the conversion was being taken , the whole squad were summoned under the posts for a reminder of what was expected of them . The message was certainly taken on board and Park began to dominate again.
Northern were now finding the going tough , and were beginning to flag . Eventually their persistent pushing of the offside line was spotted by the stand-in ref . Grove was tackled very late and high from an offside opponent , resulting in a penalty and yellow card . Normally , a red card would have resulted from a challenge like that and the big red haired lock decided to take himself to the shower to play no further part in the game ! From the penalty , Park kicked into the Northern 22 . Another strong take from Warren saw the Park forwards rumble to the line . The maul was stopped just short but Caulfield was alert enough to keep the movement going by peeling out and scoring . 26-12.
It was fitting that man of the match Danilli would score the final try . The Argentinian was relishing the perfect conditions and 'the sunshine in his pocket '. An effortless line break saw him slide underneath the posts. Grove adding the extras to make the final score 33-12.
Massive thank you to the Northern coach for stepping into the breach after both sides were let down by the non-show of the referee. Equally a well done to the players who played the game in a good competitive spirit , helping the ref in what was a good game to watch . Having taken 24 bodies , it was a difficult thing trying to get you all game time . The constant chopping and changing also affected our rugby at times . But overall , we still played some good rugby , won , 5 colts got a taste of senior rugby and it was great to see you all buying into your household duties after the game. However, two green bottles were left in the showers, so that's a 50p fine each.
Next week, Alnwick at home .