Newton Aycliffe Rugby Club continued their winning streak in Durham and Northumberland Division 3 with a 72-0 win that was not as comfortable as the scoreline suggested.  Aycliffe were without a number of players through injury, but were still able to field a strong squad.  The game was seriously affected by a strong wind blowing diagonally across the field.
The game began well for Aycliffe as David Judge broke away and gave Adam Gascoigne the chance to score a try in the first minute.  When Darryl Pettit turned over the ball from a scrummage and fed Andrew Littlefair for a try that Luke Tinkler converted, a cricket score seemed on the cards, and Ronnie Gilyeat scored his first try of the season to give Aycliffe a 17 – 0 lead.
Then though, the game became rather scrappy and the scoreboard dried up for a while as Jarrovians tried to disrupt the Aycliffe forwards.  Eventually, Luke Crossen, Littlefair and Warren Parsonage scored a further three tries before the break and the half-time score was 34 – 0.
Soon after the start of the second half, Crossen added his second score, but then the game degenerated again, with the physicality of Jarrovians putting Aycliffe off their stride.  There was no further score for 20 minutes.  Aycliffe rang the changes by putting on their replacements for the final minutes and the fresh legs seemed to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Within three minutes of coming onto the pitch, Chris Wilson had scored two tries and a further score followed through Darrell McLaren whilst Littlefair and Crossen both completed their hat tricks as Aycliffe managed to produce some flowing moves involving both backs and forwards. Tinkler finished with 6 conversions as Aycliffe scored 33 points in the last 16 minutes against their tiring opponents and triumphed 72 – 0.
The result cemented third place in the league whilst keeping up their slim hopes of promotion.  On 22 March, Aycliffe visit local rivals Sedgefield, kicking off at 3pm. Newton Aycliffe are sponsored by Boola Clothing Aycliffe and Hayward Home Appliances trading as Serviceforce.  Visit the website at www.pitchero.com/clubs/newtonaycliffe.