NURL A – 16
Northumbria B – 14
For the fourth time in five games Newcastle University’s premier sports team brought more valuable BUCS points home to the sparse Newcastle nest by downing local rivals Northumbria at Cochrane Park.
In the week preceding the game the writing appeared to be on the wall for the Mighty Owls with Northumbria having a full squad at their disposal that included over 40 players across 3 teams including a first team flying high in the super 8, one league above the NURL firsts. It became apparent before kickoff that the Northumbria team was not the thirds outfit the fixture list had promised with many recognisable deformed mugs on show.
Northumbria dominated the early exchanges with several powerful Neanderthals running in relentlessly but it was Newcastle who struck first with the ever elusive George Matthew pirouetting neatly between two players to push Newcastle ahead. Northumbria however struck back quickly with a typically bland try that saw a poor kick rebound off the hairy palms of a Northumbrian to meekly flop over the line. The referee however took pity and ignored the discrepancy to level the scores.
20 minutes into the half saw the tables turn in the favour of the real Newcastle outfit as man mountain Dan Caparros entered the fray. His impact was immediately felt far and wide, from the turf of Cochrane Park to the rib cages of any player to dare run near the Chorley monster. What the Lancastrian behemoth lacked in pace was made up for by the smaller but equally effective Matty Jones, who set the game alight with an electric line break and neat in-out to leave his opposite man and the remainder of the Northumbria outfit trailing in his wake.
The scores again were quickly levelled, once more through the inadequacies of the referee as opposed to good play from the opposition, as the ref overlooked the small but perfectly formed Ryan Fletcher’s valiant effort to hold the ball up to allow the game to enter a deadlock.
Vivien Caparros’s double xmas helpings of Chorley cake provided the difference between the teams in the early exchanges of the second half as the Newcastle pack led by Caparros continued their upfront domination. And as the tension rose so did the ferocity and tempo of the game.
The next stage of the tensely fought encounter saw George Matthew go nose to nose with the impressive poly hooker, something had to give as the pace man collided with the imposing Gateshead Thunder figure and unfortunately for Matthew it was his nasal cavity. Not to be outdone on the aggression stakes, special guest Bobb “The Beast†Sapp-Kingswood entered the fray, firstly with a bone crunching tackle to be followed by several massive airshots, the 130kg bench press of The Beast did not go to waste when a connection finally landed, Sapp-Kingswood pounced with the widely feared club hand to the back of the head to see his petite antagonist hit the deck. Matthew’s nasal cavity was soon joined on the sideline alongside Johnny Watts’s backbone and functioning legs as he too fell victim to The Beasts wild and inaccurate wind milling.
With the game finely poised at 8 apiece it was for the third time in the match that Newcastle were to take the lead, Leigh McMahon gathered a loose pass to pace the cover and score in the corner. However, the heavily breathing Owls were pegged back again but this time with interest as a third dubious try was awarded and a rare conversion was struck to see Northumbria take the lead at 14-12 with ten minutes to go.
The Mighty Owls are not hotly tipped to storm the AU awards and finally sink their talons into their long deserved and much coveted team of the year award for nothing. Will Winter showed signs of the NURL fight back by bucking his much loved tradition of horrible objects leaving his mouth on the Cochrane sod and sinking his putrid gnashers into the webbed hands of a would be infringer. The brave Warrington man fought his fragile gag reflex to give the opposition a fright and various ills that will last well beyond judgement day on March 30th.
The much needed education and life lesson of the poly side continued to be dished out left, right and centre when serial trundler Andi Lensky barrelled over butterball Adam Houston, sadistic grin in tow, to give the loud mouth senior a lesson his gratuitous tuition fees could not.
Such an action packed game, needed and received a fitting dramatic finish, newly promoted hooker Sam Flowers provided with a darting run to cross the whitewash to deliver the game into Newcastle’s hands at 16-14 on the 75th minute.
Rugby League’s 9th win in 11 games leave them flying above any of their nearest challengers in the race for BUCS and AU silverware , with their best start to a season in times gone by made even more impressive by the lack of success wreaking havoc across the majority of other teams gracing Tyne and Wear’s most prestigious campus. Many a finger across the North-East is crossed as NURL travel to Leeds Met this Saturday in hope of maintaining the rare situation of one club topping two separate leagues simultaneously.