NURL 1sts – 18
Northumbria 1sts – 16
The Owls came back from a 12 points behind to beat Northumbria 18-16 in a Cochrane cup classic.
NURL went into their cup match against the Poly as underdogs due to their opponents Super 8 league status, however it was not long before the simple-minded Poly players knew they were in for a gritty contest.
The Death Machine is customarily sparked into life by some bone shattering tackles from a gargantuan prop forward, however this week’s bruiser was winger, and part-time womanizer, Myles Hudson. The winger put in a succession of punishing hits to set the tone for the Owls’ defense, which would prove the difference between the teams over 80 minutes.
It was not long before the backs got into gear, with skipper Poops McGeezer and birthday boy Dave Knox running lines from hell to heap pressure on the Poly back line. This sustained pressure was eventually rewarded with a try; Knox delivered a perfectly measured, and completely intentional, bouncing pass to winger Harry Baxter who flew down the wing before popping the ball off to McGee who crashed over for the opening try.
The hosts were clearly fired after this, with prop forwards Dr Dan Caparros and Joe ‘Deadlift’ Dawson bashing their Poly counter parts into the ground.
Sammy Flowers put in a man of the match performance from full-back in the absence of Sam Boyd, who has moved to Russia to join the circus.
The Owls’ early dominance was short-lived however, as the Northumbria drongos started to move through the gears and began the more likely to score. Their opening try was a fortunate one; their winger was on a Forest Gump-esque sprint with no intention of stopping at the try line, however he tripped over his untied shoes lace in the dead ball area and a try was awarded.
The match continued to be an edgy affair, and when the half time whistle blew the teams were perfectly balanced, with only a missed conversion separating them.
The start of the second half proved a terrible time for the Owls, who appeared to have lost all composure after the break. Northumbria crashed over for a brace of weak tries in the space of five minutes, however they crucially missed their second conversion, leaving the score 16-4 with 20 minutes left on the clock.
The game had been played at a furious pace and intensity which had clearly taken its toll on both sets of players. Luckily the Owls had a secret, vomit soaked weapon in the shape of Will ‘the Warrington Walrus’ Winter who came on to bash a host of Poly players and gave the Owls a lift.
The Owls finally found a way through the Poly’s defense through the quick hands of their back line; Chris Griffiths shipped the ball wide to Jimmy Phillips, who evaded a handful of tackles before passing to winger Harry Baxter who sped down the right wing and scored under the posts to make the score 16-8.
Five minutes later the Owls had their visitors penned on their own goal line once again thanks to a string of crash balls from prop Dave Chatterton and narcoleptic centre John Kingswood. Skipper McGee then scooted the ball over from 2 yards out to score a vital try with less than 10 minutes left to play.
With only a matter of minutes left in the match Northumbria were awarded a scrum around 15 yards from their goal line. NURL knew a converted try at this point would see them take the lead and their inspiration came in the familiar form of Teddy Ward. The loose forward expertly stripped the ball from their stand-off before resisting a series of tackles to touch down for a superb solo effort. This left a huge amount of pressure on NURL’s trusty kicker Seagreaves, who stepped up and slotted the conversion to give the Death Machine a 18-16 advantage.
The Owls soaked up the Poly’s final attacks to see out the match and earn a famous cup victory over their bitter rivals.
This is just another highlight in a glittering campaign for the Owls who cruise through the next stage in the cup and can take a huge amount belief into their Stan Calvert match on March 30th.