Northampton Old Scouts 21 – 30 Percy Park
This sixth round match of the EDF Energy Senior Vase finally took place on the third time of asking, after the snow and ice put paid to the first two attempts in previous weeks. Park made the decision to travel in the morning of the game, and normally when teams travel such long distances, they are still mentally “on the bus” for the first ten minutes of the game; not so Park, who started with a bang and a try from Ali Blair inside 5 minutes.
The young Park winger finished off a try which started with a line out on the home side 10 metre line; the ball was won cleanly off the top and spun out to the backs, with Marcus Rutter in the line giving the final pass to Blair to go over in the right hand corner. Rutter then stepped up and kicked the conversion.
Scouts were a big burly side and kept possession very well with their forwards running phase after phase, but when in one attack fly half Josh Stannard elected to kick over the Park defence,his misdirected effort flew 
straight into the midriff of David Griffiths who set off up field offloading to fellow centre Ash Smith to run in Park’s second try on 9 minutes. Again Rutter was on target with the conversion and Park were leading by 14 points to nil.
Old Scouts responded immediately with a penalty from Stannard, but their problems worsened when their tight head prop was sin binned for “tap dancing” on Michael Langlands who had legitimately pulled down a maul. Park were unable to capitalise on the extra man advantage during the next ten minutes, and in fact Northampton cut the Park lead with another penalty from the left boot of Stannard.
Percy Park were to score next after Andrew Dunn, back in the side from injury, pounced on a loose ball. Brett Sylph drove on and found Phil Morse who made ground and fended off his opposite number before offloading to Griffiths, who then passed to Smith who made a break through the home defensive line and passed to Blair on the wing. The Park right wing unselfishly passed back
inside to Rutter in support to score, although the Park fullback was just wide with the conversion attempt.
With the second half seemingly drawing to a close, Park looked to hold out to go into a 22 – 6 lead after Rutter had increased the score with a penalty. There had been several stoppages in the first half, but Scouts never gave up and continually pressed the Park defence until eventually on the 55 minute mark they crossed the line with Tom Major getting the important touch down. Stannard couldn’t convert, but Old Scouts were still in the game at the break.
The second half started brightly for the visitors and it was Blair again who scored only three minutes in. Brett Sylph had picked up from the base of the scrum and went down the blind side taking several defenders with him before off loading one handed to the Park right wing to score, and a sixteen point gap was restored Park leading 27 – 11.
Many sides would have given up the ghost at this stage, but you don’t get to the last 16 of any national competition without grit and determination, and Scouts fought back with a try by “Billy Whiz” Harbottle. Stannard had been replaced at fly half by this time but his replacement was unable to make good the extra points.
Northampton Old Scouts continued to attack, and looked to have scored when their outside centre seemed to have crossed the line; however play was brought back to the 22 when the home side were awarded a penalty in front of the posts. Surprisingly, Scouts passed up the chance of an extra three points and opted to kick for the corner, but the ball went dead and the pressure, momentarily was relieved.
With normal time up on the watch, Park were leading 27 – 16, but the question was how much added time would be played, bearing in mind the 15 minutes extra played in the first period. Scouts then scored through Danny Bays, and a successful conversion would have meant another converted try could have won the match for the Northampton side, but the conversion attempt was off target.
Play continued with Park leading 27 -21 and eventually when Rutter kicked a penalty on 85 minutes the game was won to the palpable relief of the travelling supporters. This was a hard fought battle between two good sides in almost perfect rugby playing conditions, and although Scouts will be disappointed at going out of the competition they can be proud of their performance, and their hospitality was second to none.
Percy Park are now through to the Quarter Finals and play Bradford Salem at Preston Avenue next Saturday for a place in the last four. The Yorkshire 1 side are currently third in their league behind Old Brods and Bridlington having slipped up against Malton and Norton at the weekend. Salem made it through to the last eight by virtue of a close win 8 – 6 against fellow Yorkshire side York the previous week.
Percy Park Lions had a good win at home to Morpeth Edwardians, and the Pumas also won at Northern. The Marauders unfortunately went out of the cup against North Shields