Darlington 55 Ponteland 12

Darlington 55 Ponteland 14

Firstly, Darlington rugby club would like to congratulate Gateshead on their promotion.

Darlington secured second place and a play off game with a solid victory against a spirited and committed Ponteland side who should be congratulated for the sportsmanship they afforded during this game.

Darlington forwards again took control of the set pieces and quickly scored a well constructed try through skipper Andy Hodgkins who received an inside pass from centre Henry Carver, broke two tackles to score. Nick Baldwin missed the conversion but landed 5 later attempts, the wind proving somewhat deceptive. With Darlington being awarded a penalty on the 10 metre line, Baldwin kicked to within 10 metres of the Ponteland line, Mike Stowe, who threw accurately all day, hit Richard Snowball, a driving maul was set up and Hargreaves scored the first of his 3 tries.

From the kick off, Darlington moved the ball quickly to winger McFall who powered outside his opposite number to score a fine try.

Darlington continued to play to their strengths and on a further 4 occasions Baldwin put the forwards close to the visitors try line, once the ball was secured, they drove the defence over their line with Smith, Hargreaves(2) and Parker all touching down.

Ponteland tirelessly attacked and found space for their winger to score a well deserved try, the conversion was kicked from wide out.

The second half saw probably the best two tries of the game, centre Andrew Pugh(back from injury) took a well timed pass to beat two defenders to score the first. The second came from a penetrating run by Mark Baldwin who drew the full back, passed to Nawa who finished off the move that started in the Darlington 22.

Ponteland on the attack picked and drove a number of times and scored under the posts, the kick was successful.

The game ended with Darlington pressing hard, but most players looked like they had tired of the very hard unforgiving ground.

Darlington play the rescheduled County plate game against Stockton this coming Wednesday at Stockton but will not be sending their first team as we see the play off game as our priority. We are extremely excited about this game but recognise it will be a well contested game with significant reward.

regards bryan b