City Saracens 36 Consett 11

Saturday 27 November 2021
Durham City Saracens (2nds) v Consett and District 2nds
(Home - The Racecourse) 2:15 pm KO
Result : Durham City 36 - 11 Consett (HT 17-06)

Team sheet :

15 Ben Speight 1 try
14 Russell Harris 1 try
13 James Cook 1 try
12 Rob Smith 2 cons
11 James MacLaurin 1 try
10 Joe Hogan
9 Dan Spence
1 Jim Earley
2 Jack Bengochea I try
3 Tim Mackay
4 Matty Sayer
5 Henry Eggleston
6 Liam Davies
7 Matt Mercer
8 Rhys Powell (C) 1 try

Replacements

16 Connor Charlton
17 Tom Duclos 1 con
18 Francisco ‘Fran’ Silveira

Physiotherapist None

Referee Paul Candlish (Durham Referees Society)

A well-deserved 36-11 (six tries to one) win against doughty and committed opponents in awful conditions that owed a lot to the pack who dominated the scrums (until they went uncontested) and as well as the backs took the game to Consett at every opportunity.

Though the intention was to kick-off early by the time both teams respectfully clapped for a minute as a tribute to those of both clubs who are no longer with us on what was a Durham City RFC Re-union Day the game started shortly before the official time of 2:15pm (more on this later). City won the toss and Consett kicked-off towards the Maiden Castle end with the cross-field gale force wind (a left over from the overnight Storm Arwen) in their slight favour on the tacky Racecourse pitch.

A good catch - a feature of City’s game - and strong drives with tight head Tim Mackay prominent led to a City penalty which then missed touch and allowed Consett to clear for a City line-out on the visitors 22. A not-straight at the line-out gave Consett a scrum. Though City pushed them off it, Consett managed to scramble the ball off the park for a City line-out and from there close drives for the line culminated in captain Rhys Powell forcing his way over amongst a heap of bodies to put City 5 - 0 up with less than five minutes on the clock. The conversion was missed from wide out on the right. Consett then gave a warning of what could have come to pass when their vigorous competition of the breakdowns and re-cycling of the ball produced two confidently taken central penalties given for offside to take the lead at 5-6 after ten minutes of the half.

City’s restart didn’t go ten in the wind but back came City with beauty of a Ben Speight try when, having been given the ball by the competent handling of his fellow backs, he side-stepped his way through the Consett defence before accelerating away to score at the posts. Rob Smith’s conversion meant that City re-took the lead at 12-6.

With almost half an hour gone and after more work by the competitive City forwards another sweeping backs movement gave Russell Harris the chance to show his prowess of strong carrying to go over for the home side’s third try which wasn’t converted but extended City’s lead to 17-6. Unfortunately City then lost their advantage in the scrums when they had to go uncontested because a Consett prop had to leave the field with a shoulder injury and like City they had no front row cover. City’s scrum ascendancy didn’t always work for them however. An example being when City had the Consett eight under severe pressure at a scrum that was both five metres out and five metres in from touch that allowed the visitors’ scrum half to make an excellent break up the short side that made it to the City half.

And so to half time that saw City bring on flanker Connor Charlton for Henry Eggleston with Liam Davies moving into the second row. At the understandable request of referee Paul Candlish who was also feeling the cold the half the break was cut short with everyone’s agreement. Paul refereed the whole game with the empathy that befits an ex-County second row forward and perhaps I would say that as he was a former City player having joined us from Gateshead Fell (‘Gateshead Fell RFC’ before North Durham folded and amalgamated with them thus dropping the ‘Fell’ name).

From Consett’s kick-off at the start of the second half City, aided by a penalty, took the play into the Consett half. An exchange of kicks ended with a City line-out on the Consett 22 but the visitors were relieved by penalty that took them to a line-out on their ten metre line.

Did I mention snow ? Anyway what follows is a combination of my memory and notes, such as they were from the rest of the game, with apologies to those who were looking for a mention but are absent probably because of the great difficulty I had in making notes in the snow storm with frozen fingers. Dear knows what City debutants and replacements, Frenchman Tom Duclos and Portuguese Francisco Silveira thought about our weather.

Mid-way through the third quarter Tom Duclos came on for Ben Speight at full-back. His second touch put left wing James MacLaurin away for a run-in try. Unfortunately the conversion was missed so the score remained at 22-6.

As the hour approached James Cook got the try he deserved with his typical strong running eventually going in unopposed at the posts to give Rob Smith the easy conversion to make it 29-6 to City.

Into the final quarter and Rob Smith subbed himself with Fran Silveira coming on on the left wing with Russell Harris moving to centre.

With ten minutes left to play a text-book line-out catch and drive saw Jack Bengochea get a try which Tom Duclos turned into a seven pointer when he struck the conversion beautifully to stretch City’s lead to 36-6

By this time Consett were down to 14 but despite this handicap they again showed what could have been a difficult afternoon for the Saracens when they finished the game strongly playing it in and around the City 22 scoring a try by the posts which surprisingly was not converted. I think City may have accepted Consett’s request to even up the playing numbers but this may have been lost on me in the kerfuffle of the final minutes. The referee calling time thus brought a final score of 36-11 to City and then after the usual clapping off the field by each side a rapid departure to the Clubhouse’s welcoming hot showers. This meant there was no huddle and no announcement of City’s Man of the Match until most were back in the changing room. Though Tim Mackay and Matt Mercer both received more than honourable mentions, James Cook was deservedly given the award.

So back to Hollow Drift in time to watch at least 10 minutes of the end of the first team match that proved to be quite exciting - more for the nail-biting 16-14 City win than the dour game itself - certainly one for the players rather than the enjoyment of the spectators.

Other events during the afternoon included :
A number of the still novel goal-line drop-outs by Consett 2nds showed the pressure City put on the visitors line.
Disappointingly the disruption caused by the cold weather meant that the team didn’t sing the victory song though I think Rhys Powell’s enthusiasm to lead it’s singing as the first try scorer later in the Club bar was more to do with him by then having had a few drinks.
And last but not least and appropriately on ‘Reunion Day’ the ‘Ned Smith Cup’ was presented to City as aggregate winners against Consett , I believe by his son and long-time Club servant and scrum half, Ian.

This season’s Saracens record for only the five matches played to date, all League matches in the Candy League Two South, is therefore :

Played : 5 Won : 2 Lost : 3 Points for : 113 Points against : 113 Tries for : 18 Tries against : 16

Thanks to the efforts of Mark Berriman a home ‘friendly’ game has been arranged for this Saturday 04 December 2021 against Sunderland 2nds. The Saracens will hope to reverse the outcome of the last match played between these teams - the last game played on the 7th March 2020 before Covid stopped any more matches for 18 months - when Sunderland ran out 34-29 winners in a five tries apiece thriller on the Racecourse.

SE
30 November 2021