Castle won their seventh game of the season, gaining revenge on a decent calibre Whitby side who pipped them by a single point just a week earlier on their own turf.
Barnie had a few changes, welcoming back Marty Lonsdale into the front row, Henry Thompson into the back row, Danny Winter into the scrum half position and Ali Johnston onto the wing.
Castle started strongly down the slope in ideal conditions for running rugby and had a full five minutes pressurising the Whitby line but stout defence from the visitors kept Castle out and suddenly Whitby were away up the pitch and the roles were reversed as the Barnie players needed to put in some tackling. However Whitby broke the deadlock after a series of penalties and they created an overlap in the top corner to go over and the conversion was added.
Castle were soon pressing again and moving the ball fluently across the pitch. Eventually, in almost a carbon copy of the Whitby try, the ball was passed out to Robbie Lavin who went over in the corner.
At this stage the Barnie forwards were doing well in the lineout but were under pressure in the scrums. From a position inside the Whitby twenty two, Barnie gave away two or three penalties in quick succession and suddenly they were back in their own twenty-two. Whitby again made the most of the territorial advantage and their forwards found a chink in the armour, their impressive flanker driving through to extend their to lead 5-14.
Castle were soon down the Whitby end once more though and after some fine interlinking play down the left between Oscar Jacques and Ali Johnston, the ball was passed across the pitch to the right where Jack Worley was in space. Although brought to ground just short of the try-line he was not held and he managed a fine ‘dying mole’ impression as he scrambled the last metre to reach out and dot down. Sam Bell added the conversion and tied the scores at 14-14. Just before the halftime whistle, Whitby popped over a penalty goal to lead again 14-17.
Some stern words at half time and Barnie came out firing on all cylinders and only ten minutes into the half after prop John McGrath had been held up over the Whitby line, further probing attacks from Ali Johnston down the left wing created space for fullback Oscar Jacques to go round the last defender and canter round behind the posts for a slender 19-17 advantage.
Whitby’s restart kick saw them pressing on the home tryline once more but they were held up and Castle had an opportunity to use a try-line dropout to clear their line. Sadly there was little ‘chase’ of the kick and Whitby easily penetrated using the ample space down the left wing to go over once more and convert, regaining the lead 19-24.
The end to end nature of the game continued when an attempted clearance pass by the Whitby scrumhalf was brilliantly intercepted by lock forward Jack Worley who legged it from twenty metres out to put Castle ahead 26-24, Sam Bell once again adding the extras.
At this stage, somewhat inexplicably Barnie chose the next twenty minute period to play some champagne rugby. Sadly, all too often, the ‘miracle’ passes did not go to hand and as a result, time and again, Whitby got unexpected chances to build pressure on the home team. Fortunately the scrum had now stabilised and errors from the visitors and a yellow card for their influential flyhalf prevented them profiting from Castle’s generosity. Then finally with just ten minutes remaining on the clock, Barnie scored a real peach of a try to seal out the game. Junior drove out of his own twenty-two metre area and linked with Marty Lonsdale who found Robbie Lavin in support. Lavin made excellent ground and when held offloaded to Bell and the highly impressive, Man-of-the-Match, Archie Thompson. Thompson drew the final man and passed out to brother Henry who was cruising up on the right wing and able to go over unchallenged, extending the lead to 33-24.
At last Barnie, assisted by a strong bench of Danny Souter, Lewis Wigham and James Barber, settled into playing keep-ball and the remainder of the game was played out in the central region of the pitch.
The result with the try-bonus saw Castle leapfrog both Whitby and North Shields in the league.
Barnie played some excellent rugby against a very proficient opposition side. The results will continue to come provided sleight-of-hand passes are delivered when expected and players breaking the line have support on their shoulder. All too often, the support was fractionally late and the opposition back row profited. However these issues are easily ‘fixable’ and should not detract overall from an excellent result and some great flowing rugby for the serried ranks of spectators to savour.
Next week sees Castle travel to Bishop Auckland to take on rivals lying fourth in the table.