Acklam 40 points v Consett 45 points

Acklam 40 points v Consett 45 points

The Yorkshire President Dawn Rathmell was a welcome guest to our club and she cut the ribbon on our new fencing which makes the top pitch a paddock. The club looked magnificent so would the game live up to expectation. The only down side was the fact we had a very strong wind blowing down the pitch. Consett took advantage of the wind in the first half and made full use of it but Acklam equally took advantage in the second half. Half time Consett led by 7-33, so once again Acklam's never say die attitude almost won them the game.

Acklam kicked off and two accurate passes by Consett opened the scoring after 1 minute, 0-7. Poor restarts resulting from the ball not going 10 meters meant unnecessary pressure was exerted on the Acklam defence. Consett fly half Alex Paulus was controlling the game and he added another try after 5 minutes. In the 11th minute Consett won a scrum and scored under the posts, 0-19. The opposition bonus point try came after only 20 minutes resulting from a turnover ball 35 meters from Acklam’s line. Once again the restart kick failed to go the 10 meters, 0-26. At this stage Acklam had shown no real purpose in their game as they were completely outplayed in all areas. Hope came in the 29th minute when Acklam won a penalty on the halfway which they took quickly, Chris Walker passed to Marcus Sudron who made a decisive break and off loaded to the willing Len Hogg who scored his first of four tries, 7-26. Acklam’s hopes were dashed once again, in the 38th minute a quickly taken penalty and poor tackling saw Alex Paulus score once more under the posts, H.T. 7-33. The first half performance was simply not good enough, it had to get better!

So it did, infact Acklam won the 2nd half by 5 tries to 2 tries. It didn’t bode well when Consett scored a try after only 1 minute into the second half, once again poor tackling. In the 45th minute Acklam had the put into the scrum and from 22 meters out a blind side move resulted in Josh Abraham making the break and once again fine support play meant Len Hogg scored his second try of the game. Three minutes later Acklam were in full flow with some great inter passing which resulted in Lenny scoring once again, 21-38. At this stage Acklam were well on top and only four minutes later on the 52nd minute, Acklam won their line out ball and the ball moved quickly across the field to the opposite wing for Jacob Robinson to score, 26-38. In the 65th minute Consett scored against the run of play, with a 70 meter break, 26-45. Acklam’s tails were up and they continuously attacked the visitors line and were awarded with a try from a 5 meter scrum in the 70th minute. This was followed in the 79th minute when Acklam won another scrum, Josh Abraham made a break who offloaded to Marcus Sudron who supplied Len Hogg (Man of the Match) with his fouth try of the game, F.T. 40-45.

Two contrasting halves by Acklam, no question about their attacking ability but defensively much needs improving.