Newton Aycliffe Rugby Club entered new territory with a floodlit Friday night game at Northallerton. Returning to their visitors from a fortnight ago, Aycliffe were able to field 23 players, despite a number of unavailabilities due to work commitments. Assistant coach, David Gibson filled the important number 10 shirt due to the absences. The host side were able to field a total of 36 players.
The game was played in three periods of thirty minutes; during the opening period, it was clear that the teams were quite well matched but Northallerton opened the scoring taking advantage of a rare moment of defensive weakness in the Aycliffe team to score in the corner. Aycliffe fought back strongly and James Thacker, making his first appearance of the pre-season, carved through the defence before being brought down by the last man. The attack continued and Dave Gibson saw a gap in front of him, he stepped quickly through it and scored beneath the points, adding the conversion himself. At the break, Aycliffe were 7 – 5 ahead.
The second period was non-stop pressure from Northallerton and three times they were held up over the line; Chris Richards and Chris Knight being among the heroes. Michael Welch came on for captain Warren Parsonage and soon made his defensive presence felt. Despite the onslaught, no scores were forthcoming.
Aycliffe emptied the bench for the third period, including Stuart McIvor, playing on the evening of his fiftieth birthday. Despite changing more than half the pack, Aycliffe were able to push their opponents about in the scrum. As time ran down, Northallerton were getting increasingly desperate and were busting every sinew to grab a victory. Finally the pressure told as the spread the ball first one way, then the other and Aycliffe’s resolute defence ran short of numbers. The converted try giving the hosts a 5-point lead. Aycliffe still fought back and Thacker made another break. The game ended 12 – 7 to the hosts.
This was a fine performance by Aycliffe and showed improvement over the previous games. After a weeks rest, they begin their league campaign with a home game against South Tyneside College at 3pm on 14th September. Newton Aycliffe are sponsored by Boola Clothing Aycliffe and Hayward Home Appliance Services trading as Serviceforce
