Good Bishop Performance for Bishop U13s

 

Novocastrians U13s 29 Bishop Auckland U13s 10

Bishop Auckland Under 13s made the trip to Newcastle for their first game on a full-sized pitch. Bishop began well and good work from the forwards saw them have the majority of the territory. Alex Bielby was a constant threat intelligently mixing up his kicking, running and passing options. Hooker Josh Leonard, on his debut, made sure that the visitors took the majority of the scrummage ball and Anth Young was dominant in the line-out. Novos then broke out of defence and took the lead, against the run of play, with a try. A period of Novos pressure finally saw a miscued defensive kick give them a second score. It looked certain that Lloyd Purser would reduce the gap when he broke free in midfield but an excellent tackle from the winger stopped the move. A fine break from Anth Young also came close to a score made.

The rucking from Sunny Maan, Chris Coates, and Curtis Hall was powerful and scrum-half Sam McIvor tidied up the loose ball well at the back. Leon Berriman in the new position of flanker covered a large amount of ground tackling the Novos backs. At half-time the score was 12 – 0.

Bishop were unlucky to concede a try at the beginning of the second half but then again forced their way back into the Novos half but could not score. Two quick tries from Novos seemed to have broken Bishop’s spirit but they fought back with both Toby and Ben Oliver making tackles and Lloyd Purser showing great strength to steal the ball a number of times. After winning a scrum close to halfway number 8, Ben Hoggart, who was a threat all game, picked up the ball and gained 15 metres; when he was stopped 25 metres out, Sam McIvor was on hand to take the ball and run in the try. Straight from the kick-off Lloyd Purser caught the ball and ran through a number of defenders to score another try with the last play of the game. The final score was 29 – 10 to Novos.

This was an excellent performance by Bishop in their first game and they were unlucky to lose what was an evenly fought game. They can now look forward with confidence to the visit of Darlington Mowden Park on Sunday.