Prudhoe & Stocksfield 32-36 Yarm

P&S welcomed Yarm RFC to Stocksfield sports field, determined to improve the defence that has been a slight weakness in the previous two games this season. Changes from last week were aplenty, with Ryan Chamberlain and Will Foster starting in the front row, whilst James Bradshaw moved from the centres to his favoured position on the flank. In the backs, Steven Henderson returned at 10 and Matty Nevin took a starting spot on the right wing.

Having lost the toss, P&S played uphill first and started emphatically by winning the kick off thanks to a great kick chase by Daniel Whiley. After working phases through willing runners from the pack, Yarm conceded a penalty which Henderson duly converted. 3-0.

From the kick off, Ryan Chamberlain took responsibility and claimed an excellent catch to drive P&S back up the hill. Yarm were well organised in their defence yet their ill discipline at the breakdown gave Henderson another shot at goal which he took to make the score 6-0

Yarm have an abundance of talent in their side, including an excellent trio of 9,10,12 all of whom started to get hands on the ball and began to dictate proceedings. The visitors were playing quite an expansive game, trying to add width and stretch the P&S defence. From a loop move in midfield a break downfield from the visitors 10 had P&S scrambling to get back and despite stemming the initial flow, the powerful number 8 crashed over to score. 6-5.

With conditions perfect for running rugby, if not a little warm, P&S showed their attacking skills with the forwards providing a platform for quick ball. Strong carries from Will Foster, Ryan Chamberlain and Alex Fitton kept pushing the Yarm defence back. From one of these carries, Danny Whiley interlinked with Yannick Debil, who in turn fed flying winger Matty Nevin who span his way through the final tackle to score a fantastic try full of offloads and support lines. 11-5.

This seasons Achilles heel for the home side has been the inability to prevent soft scores and again this was evident as yarm scored another two tries through lapses in the defence rather than attacking skill which has been a frustration for Coach Russell all year. 11-17

However, this season P&S have shown that they are capable of playing some brilliant rugby and scoring some memorable tries and Luke Masters score was no different. Ryan Chamberlain carried strongly through midfield before quick recycling of the ball shown Yannick Debil charge towards the line. Despite the covering defence, Henderson was in support before he showed composure to offload the ball to Masters who made no mistake to bring P&S back into the game. 18-17

The final try of the half again went to the home side, as Yannick Debil stole a line out to jink his way through the crowd of players to stretch over and extend the P&S lead to 25-17.

Having worked hard in the heat and up the hill, it was important that we continued to play with the same intensity that had given us the lead. Unfortunately, Yarm had other ideas and showed why they are leading promotion candidates as they capitalised on any P&S errors to immediately bring themselves back into the game.

The fist score of the second half went to the visitors as an overthrown lineout on our 5 metre line gave the Yarm number 8 the easy task of bashing over from close range to give Yarm the perfect start to the second half. 25-24

This gave P&S the wake-up call that the second half performance was needing. With a large bench plenty of changes were made at this stage as Dave Rodgers, Dan Tate and Karl Main added fresh legs to the pack and Kieran Reilly and Jonathon Dodds added pace out wide.

From a set piece that the forwards have been working on P&S got their try bonus, 4th of the day as Yannick Debil got his second of the day. Will Foster took the ball and powered towards the line. Again, good support and aggression at the breakdown allowed Debil the chance to pick and go and stretch over to give P&S a 32-24 lead.

With the scoreboard looking favourable to P&S, Yarm began to chase the game but had to do so without their blindside flanker who served 10 minutes for a high tackle. This didn’t seem to make any difference to the visitors as they just moved the ball wider and quicker and made great progress up their left wing. Firstly, the visitors worked a 2 on 1 with decoy runners in midfield fixing our centres. Despite a fantastic effort from Dave Rodgers to make a try saving tackle, the winger just had the reach to touch the ball down. 32-29

With only 8 minutes left, Yarm turned the game into their favour to lead as again their left winger did extremely well to touch down despite being under pressure from Henderson and the touchline nearby. The try was fantastically converted from out wide giving Yarm a 32-36 victory.

Another disappointing end for the P&S side who, for the second week, running take two losing bonus points, however, with a little bit more composure, victory could have been ours.

Many thanks to Yarm RFC for a great game, played in the right spirit from start to finish. Good luck for the rest of the year and we look forward to the return visit later on in the year.

Man, of the Match for P&S = Yannick Debil kindly Sponsored by ThinkSmall