Pont Second Best in the Battle of Wounded Knee

Ponteland 8-20 Stockton

By Chris Morgan

An injury hit Ponteland side once again gave a good account of themselves but ended up on the wrong end of a 20-8 defeat against high flying Stockton.

With Mark McGookin and Michael Mullins missing from the side which lost to Alnwick the previous week, Pont were forced into a reshuffle as Will Newbigin moved to fly half and Richard Moller slotted in the back row. David Stromsoy and Sam Walton filled in the gaps in the back line.

But soon the home side were really up against it as prop forward Lee Coulthard was taken off with mild concussion after just two minutes followed closely by emergency stand-off Newbigin who was stretchered off with a nasty looking knee injury, although later reports on Twitter confirmed it was not as bad as first thought with the makeshift Ponteland medical team doing a fine job in the shed!

Despite these hindrances though, Pont were more than a match for their Teesside opponents, despite expectedly spending a considerable amount of time defending their own territory.

It was the visiting side who had most of the pressure in the opening exchanges as they took advantage of the injury crisis that had decimated the Ponteland backline.

Nevertheless, Pont stood firm despite conceding an early penalty to find themselves 3-0 down.

They gradually managed to crawl themselves out of their own 22 and started to cause Stockton some problems of their own with the visitors lucky to keep 15 men on the field as they were persistently penalised at the breakdown.

Ironically, a yellow card did eventually follow for dissent as Pont began to get a foothold in the game.

Despite enjoying their best spell though, the try drought was broken on 35 minutes by the away side with their last play before returning to their full compliment as the full back scored in the corner. The fly half kicked an impressive conversion to give the away side a 10-0 lead.

Pont’s lack of a recognised goal kicker was always going to be a huge problem, but Pete Britland did step up to the plate on the stroke of half time to claw back three points to send the sides in 3-10 at the break.

The second half was a similar story with Pont spending increasing amounts of time defending their own try line.

Again, the lack of a kicker was a problem as Pont struggled to find anyone with a boot big enough to clear the lines and clear the ever mounting Stockton pressure.

The visiting side’s second try came in controversial circumstances though. While it would be difficult to argue that it was undeserved, a scrum five yards out from the Ponteland try line looked to have turned considerably more than the permitted 90 degrees before the Stockton flanker touched it down, but the referee allowed it and at 15-3 down, Pont looked unlikely to turn things around.

Minutes later and Mark Kelly was sin binned for offside and while Ponteland defended like beavers in his absence, the pressure was just becoming too much as the visitors scored yet another try as they camped themselves on the Ponteland try line.

The Teessiders can count themselves fortunate that when Ponteland did have possession, despite committing persistent infringements they were not penalised in the form of a yellow card as they spent most of the second half offside.

Eventually the card did come out but from a super lenient referee who in truth should have stamped it out sooner.

Pont did finish the game with a well deserved consolation as Jack Storey at last took advantage of some space to score near the posts.

For the second consecutive week, Ponteland can count themselves as unfortunate to come away from a game against one of the division’s top sides with nothing to show for their efforts.

There can be no doubting the commitment and work ethic of the side who despite having to defend for much of the game, continued to put in the big hits when it mattered where a lesser side would have let their heads go down in similar circumstances.

Ultimately though, it was a lack of someone with a big size 12 to clear the decks when it mattered which probably cost the game although losing against a more experienced and certainly physically bigger side was no disgrace whatsoever.

Ponteland: Coulthard, Norris, Kelly, Robinson, Freer, Harrison, Moller, Mundy, Maughan, W. Newbigin, P. Newbigin, S. Walton, Storey, Stromsoy, Britland. Subs: Scott, Charlton, Shields