The Lion Cubs entertained Middlesborough Wasps in a Candy League Division 1 fixture . The heavy early morning frost had disappeared in the morning sunshine , and with no wind , conditions were perfect for rugby . The only thing need was two teams . The Wasps had been stuck in traffic , so kick off was put back to 2.45 . In addition , the visitors had decided to leave their scrum half behind , but with Park having a healthy surplus of players and three scrum halves in the squad , two of them played a half each for the visitors .
Park lined up as follows ; Gould , Josh , Berne , Zak , Thomas , Ben , James , Williamson (c) , Ross , Hennesey , Dryden , Aaron , Kidd , Pollock , Ward . Hence the Lion Cubs , with 9 seniors and 6 colts .
Park kicked off , attacking towards the Square Field . Early exchanges were frenetic . Errors were high as was the penalty count . But both sides , to their credit , were trying to throw the ball around . Park looked the more dangerous side , but the Wasps were not without a sting ! With 30 minutes gone , neither side had managed to get Arthur on his feet to change the scoreboard . But he was about to have a busy 10 minutes . Park , having defended their line resolutely , advanced down the field to the visitors 10m . At the line out , Boro pounced on a loose ball , raced up the touch line all the way to the line and scored in the corner , 0-5 . Park struck straight back . Stung by being behind , Park attacked forcing the opposition to commit a penalty . A quick tap and two passes to veteran Gould , who hit the line at pace jinked inside the drift d and scored under the posts . 7-5 HT .
Buoyed by their play at the end of the first half , Park increased the tempo . Playing at pace , stretching their opponents , it looked like they'd had the hairdryer treatment in the halftime huddle . Or so the oldies in the stand thought , but far from it , the lads knew what they had to do and were determined to do it . Within minutes Park increased their lead . To be honest , I didn't see how it played out , as I was trying to organise a couple of subs !! What I did see was the end , and that was the sight of young Jacob scorching up the left wing in front of the clubhouse and scoring in the corner . Wow , he's got wheels . 14-5
Back came the Wasps just to prove that they were still in this game . 14-10 . Parks spirit wasn't dented by this , still they attacked at every opportunity and then found themselves under pressure as they pushed a little to hard . Yes they could take a kick at goal , but the Candy League is all about scoring tries , score a try you get a point , the more points we get the higher we will finish in the league , if that's the rules of the competition then you set your stall out accordingly .
Park would have the last score of the game . A scrum on their own 10m line with a decent short side to attack , or so the coach hoped ! Well that's exactly what the young 8 and 9 did . The impressive Jake , picked up at the base , sucked in the opposition blindside and popped up a super pass to scrum half George who then took advantage of the wingers indecision and burst through the gap and showed a clean pair of heels to all those trying to chase him . 21-10 FT
A good win for the lads . Could've been a wider margin had the final pass been better at times , made better decisions , had better ball retention etc etc . A lot of ifs and buts . What is fact , is that Park have a great set of colts , they've been playing rugby for two seasons now , they train , they played the day after , they are polite , they listen , are keen to learn , at one stage there was 10 colts on the pitch for Park and not one of them looks out of place .
Next week the Colts entertain Wigton and the Lions travel to Blaydon Development , hopefully . I will be at Twickenham !!!