Conditions were good at Brinkburn when we kicked off the start of 4 * 20 minutes in a pre-season friendly. Defences were most prominent in the first quarter with Tazz standing out with one crunching tackle on a West forward. Despite both sides having chances the score was 0-0 at the first break. At the restart we went into the lead when Liam Wood chased Dean's kick and tapped down to Danny Charters about 40 metres out. Danny ran through the West defence and though he seemed to be held a couple of times he was too powerful to be stopped and went over for a fine try. Dean converted to put us 7-0 up. West hit back just before half time when their scrum half dummied his way over for a converted try and levelled the scores.

HT - West 7 - 7 Rovers A

West went into the lead with a carefully controlled drive from a lineout (a very effective tactic of theirs all game) and the conversion put them 14-7 up. Rovers then drew level when a lovely timed run by Ste Railton onto a pop pass split open the West backline and Ste handed onto Chrissy Hopkinson who finished off the move. This time Dazz converted and the score was 14-14 going into the last quarter. There was one of those incidents that only seems to happen in rugby below 1st XV level. The original referee, Tim Hilditch,was accidentally ran into and suffered double vision so had to retire and his replacement was Derek 'Doc' English who was watching West's 1st XV. Doc had no kit and turned out in his jeans and t shirt - a look that owed more to Jeremy Clarkson than Nigel Owens perhaps? When play did resume Dean gathered the ball in midfield and dinked up a clever chip which he regathered at pace and the ball was worked to Michael Railton on the wing. Michael knows where the line is and his pace was too much for West to stop him for an unconverted try in the corner. 19 - 14 to us. Then Chrissy Hopkinson turned provider with a searing break before giving Michael Railton another gallop down the wing for a try in virtually the same place as his previous one. Again the conversion into the wind was missed but we now were 2 scores ahead at 24-14. West battled hard to get back in the game and drew closer when with all the forwards looking for the ball in a ruck near our line the West scrum half sneaked over with it. The conversion brought the score to 21-24 to us. Despite West's efforts we held out for the win

HT - West 21 - 24 Rovers A

This was a good, competitive but well natured game that will have got a lot of lads well needed game time. It will have also given watching coach Ste Smith some additional options for future games but also some areas to work on.

It was a fine all round squad performances but just a few special mentions are perhaps deserved. First of all well done to Ryan Hodgson on his debut and also to Callum Montgomery (brother of Jamie) for turning out for us. It was also good to see Chrissy Hopkinson back in a Rovers shirt and he linked up with no less than 7 of our successful U17s side of recent seasons (with 2 more watching). Also thanks to Connor White who was spectating when he was press ganged into pinching the injured Dash Hogg's kit and helped shore up our pack and lineout in particular. We had been short of options in the pack which saw some rearrangement with Danny Cookland featuring at hooker and Jack Gunn and Grandy in the back row.

Pictures from the game are here http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/hartlepoolroversfootballclub/photos/stags-v-rovers-a-763131.html Some are from West's facebook site and some were taken by Captain Callum Whitehead who apologises for his pictures as, according to his girlfriend, he only has a little lens.

Next week we are looking for a similar standard fixture as many players are away on Fuzz's stag do

Squad

Hopkinson, M Railton, Hodgson, Stephenson, Gunn, S Railton, J Montgomery, Grand, Dixon, Fawcett (c), D Smith jnr, Pelser, Cookland, Healey, Clayton, Llloyd S Saunders, Gibson, Hogg, C Montgomery, Wood, White, Charters