Given the choice of watching rugby on a Saturday afternoon and shopping with the wife, it’s normally a no brainer, But this week I have to say on reflection, the Metro Centre would have provided better sport. It was not until the 79th minute when the first try was scored, up until then the game was sadly not much of a spectacle, with the score board ticking along courtesy of the fly half boots of Messrs Rutter and Foster.
Park welcomed the return of skipper Brett Sylph from injury, but were still without several key influential players who hopefully will be back in the side over the coming weeks. Percy Park opened the scoring with a Rutter penalty after 2 minutes after Gateshead had started the game with a kick off which didn’t go ten metres. From the resulting scrum, Park’s fly half Turnbull kicked to the corner, and the home side infringed after the line out giving Park the first penalty of an error strewn game.
Percy Park had a good deal of the possession, but couldn’t make this count. In the tight the larger Gateshead pack had the edge over the visitors, but their line out wasn’t firing and Park had the edge in this phase of the game. Park’s best chance came when Michael Langlands kicked through a loose ball deep into the home side 22. The lock kicked the ball on again and was just pipped to the line with Paul Lindsay getting a vital toe to the ball just before the try line to kick the ball dead. Park were rewarded with the put in to a 5 metre scrum which with a lapse of concentration allowed the home side to get a nudge and win a ball against the head to clear their lines.
On the 30 minute mark former skipper Greg Dixon was penalised for holding on in a tackle, and up stepped Jonathan Foster to claim the three points and the score was now 3 – 6. Two minutes later Park scrum half John Scott was sin binned for taking out a supporting player and Foster equalised the score with his second penalty kick.
Gateshead had repelled the pressure put on them by the visitors and at this stage were getting more into the game. A deep kick into the Park 22 was retrieved by Rutter, but without support from either of his two wings was caught in possession and gave away a penalty. Surprisingly Gateshead chose to go for the three points rather than press for a try with a scrum on the Park 5 metre line. Foster’s kick gave Gateshead the lead for the first time in the game, and the half ended 9 – 6.
The second half was a dour affair with Percy Park spurning several opportunities to score by taking wrong options when overlaps presented themselves, and should have made more of the numerical advantage when one of the Gateshead back row was shown a yellow card for repeated infringing.
Foster had a chance to stretch the Gateshead lead when Liam Blackburn was penalised for a high tackle, but the fly half was off target. Moments later Rutter levelled the scores with his third penalty of the day in the 72nd minute. With the game looking for all the world a draw, Liam Blackburn was penalised for holding on in the tackle on the Park 10 metre line and up stepped Foster to restore the home side lead.
Park now needed a try to seal the game, and in fairness looked the more likely of the two teams to achieve this. A deep kick into the Gateshead 22 was chased up by Park’s right wing Barlow, but the home side full back David Tate was first to the ball, and ghosted around the Park player and set off up field, hugging the touchline, and ran the length of the pitch to score in the corner. Jonathan Foster just missed the conversion attempt, but the game was over and Gateshead had their first league win of the season.
At Preston Avenue, Park’s Lions didn’t fare any better going down 16 – 20 to Gateshead II. Park’s points came from tries by Phil Morse and Ian Bradley, with two penalties from Paul Spowart.