Boro 1st XV 38 –  35 Durham City

Another cracking afternoon of rugby down at Acklam Park as Middlesbrough welcomed fellow 152 year old Durham City, our friends from the North

As with most games in Regional 2 North both sides were at it hammer and tongs from the off

On 11 minutes a break from Boro No 8 player/coach Ollie Hodgson results in quick ball for the backs, wing Brendan Hill passes out of a tackle to full back Matthew Marsay to score, Hill adds the conversion 7-0

Durham attack, up the slope and are rewarded with a try after several drives from their pack 7-7

A lineout on halfway allows Boro to attempt an intricate move in the centres, straight off the training pitch, this puts Hill through the gap he draws the full back and passes to centre Jack McPhillips to score 12-7

McPhillips then breaks through the DC defence to set up the ball for fly half Shay Barritt to score out wide 17-7

Towards half time DC kick a penalty leaving the score at the break Middlesbrough 17 Durham City 10

The second half starts with DC mounting wave after wave of attack at Boro, the home side can count themselves lucky to only concede 2 penalties 17-16

Hands, hands and more hands from Boros backs and forwards sees them pass the ball along the line and back again, eventually it ends up in Jack McPhillips hands, he pivots and pirouettes creating space for him to run in from 20 metres to score, Hill adds on 2 24-16

At this point I got a phone call from my Mum and I looked up from it just in time to see Hill cross the whitewash for a tr4y, U have no idea what the move was that led to it but I couldn’t ignore me Mum could I? Hill converts 31-16

More good play sees Boro centre Pete Homan go on one of his trademark barnstorming runs, the ball was fed out to replacement hooker Jack Cook who juggled but held on well, a ruck was formed allowing Hodgson to snipe over from close in 38-16

A fellow spectator commented that DC had played well and would be disappointed to return home with out a pair of bonus points. Commentators curse became that spectators curse as DC finished the game strongly with three well deserved tries the third of these was a length of the field effort securing them 2 losing bonus points
38-35

Another great game from two sets of players giving their all for our game

Next week Boro travel along the A66 to Carlisle for a 2pm kick off, a week off in the middle of the Holidays then back over to Cumbria again on the 4th January to play Kirkby Lonsdale 1400 ko for this one

Yours in rugby

Jabba