League opener sees Bears on song against Consett

Berwick Bears opened their league campaign in a tense fashion going down to an unexpected early soft try to a pumped up Consett team who had traveled the A1 with the intention of an away victory to start their season. This could have spelt trouble for the Bears giving a much larger pack the confidence and upper hand. However the team defended well for the next 15 minutes backing their defensive structure and individual tackling until on the quarter hour Tommy McCoul broke away to score Berwick’s first points of the new campaign. Unfortunately the Bears could not convert and the score remained 5-7

This set the scene of the first half with a fantastic defensive effort from the bears with all players participating, to keep the score unchanged until the tide turned in the Bears favor with Consett beginning to tire. The Berwick back line worked them hard around the pitch from the good position being won by their forwards. Under pressure Consett gave away two penalties both converted to points by Angus Brown to take the half time score to 11-7

The second half started with a complete change around with Berwick initiating some slick handling and solid defensive kicking from hand by Patterson and Brown pinning Consett in their own half for long periods. James Patterson the Bears Captain was now dictating the pace of the game at half back and after some quick handling and good interchange Brown spotted a gap and was over for the Bears second try of the day, Angus then converted his own try to take the score to 18-7

All credit to the Consett team as they never gave in on what was now an up hill fight and they received their just reward when their pack drove over from a line out deep in the Bears 22. However they were unable to convert with the score now 18-12.

This could have brought about a tense finally to the game but the Bears finished in style with some strong ball winning by the forwards and clinical finishing from the backs to see McCoul going over for his second try of the day and Berwick’s third.

The final score being 23 – 12 to Berwick. The bears should take heart from this game as they displayed resilience, organization in defense and quite some flair and pace in attack. This will only get better with more commitment and hard work on the training pitch as there is still plenty more to come from the Bears. A solid building block for the season