Hartlepool Rovers 25 – 19 Ponteland By Chris Morgan

Hartlepool Rovers 25 – 19 Ponteland
By Chris Morgan
The curse of the A19 struck Ponteland again as they went down to a close defeat against Hartlepool Rovers in Durham and Northumberland Division One.
Pont have never enjoyed the best of times in this part of the world but despite their defeat at home to Acklam last week, came into this game in buoyant mood against a Rovers side who had lost three of their previous four matches.
The visitors started the better with some neat passing moves among the backs causing problems in the home side’s defence. The hosts were rightly penalised for infringements at the break down and despite and early miss, Michael Mullins soon made amends, slotting over a penalty after 12 minutes to give Pont a 3-0 lead.
That seemed to spur Hartlepool into life though as the strong runners that they possessed throughout the team started to get the wind up their backs only to find themselves thwarted by some strong Ponteland tackling in the midfield.
Nevertheless, they soon found their way back into the game, albeit controversially as the referee missed a knock-on at the back of the ruck before a questionable grounding was given in the first try of the game as Rovers took a 5-3 lead.
Back came Pont though, in what was proving to be an end to end first half as they scored what was undoubtedly the try of the match to reclaim the lead.
Calling a mark in his own 22, Peter Maughan expertly manoeuvred into some space to gain Pont ground. What followed was an excellent example of support play as Rob Lenderyou’s lay off found Will Newbigin who in turn set up his brother Pete who dived over for his first try for the First XV. And end to end try that was sheer magic from start to finish.
But despite some excellent aspects to their play, Pont were constantly shooting themselves in the foot. A poor catch from the restart saw Robers awarded a penalty which they converted with 30 minutes played.
And then as Pont gifted possession back to the home side, they ran in their second try to take the score back to 13-10.
Pont were by no means lying down though. Philip Mundy made an excellent break which led to a penalty for the visitors which Mullins knocked over to level the scores at 13-13 going into the break in what was a thoroughly entertaining first half.
The thick fog was descending in on the northeast coast and as the brave band of five travelling Ponteland supporters wrapped up warm, they saw their side caught cold in the opening stages of the second period as a persistent spell of early pressure from the home side resulted in the centre running through at pace to score Hartlepool’s third try to make the score 20-13 as the conversion was successful.
The visitors kept plugging away though and Mullins sent over another penalty to bring the score to within four points as the penalty side for both sides crept up.
But just as Pont were building up a head of steam, they were made to pay for a couple of handling errors which could have seen them claim their second try as Rovers went up the other end to score their fourth of the match.
In truth, none of the home side’s trys were for the purists as pure muscle and persistence got them over the line in the end, but the final 5 pointer of the match effectively put Pont out of it as a contest.
Another penalty was given from the resulting restart and Mullins would have been disappointed to see his effort sail wide of the posts.
But the fly half made amends with the last kick of the game as his penalty secured a bonus point for Pont who after a generally positive performance could have counted themselves unfortunate to have left the New Friarage completely empty handed.
UItimately it was the try count of 4-1 which was the difference and while the home side were clinical in Ponteland’s 22, the visitors were left to rue missed opportunities which could have quite easily ended their A19 hoodoo.
Ponteland: Coulthard, Norris, Kelly, Robinson, Freer, Lenderyou, Mundy, McGookin, Maughan, Mullins, Britland, Storey, Moller, P. Newbigin, W. Newbigin. Sub: Bell