Last updated 13:39, Thursday, 02 October 2008

IN their second league game of the season, Prudhoe and Stocksfield were due to welcome Gateshead third XV, who were promoted with them from Northumberland League 3A last season.

Prudhoe& Stocksfield 75, Gateshead 12

However, with Stocksfield Football Club involved in a cup game, the rugby match was relocated to Winlaton.

P&S were still smarting from the lessons handed out by Consett the previous week, and it was not long before the backlash was felt by Gateshead.

Two minutes saw a good line out taken by Prudhoe and Stocksfield.

The ball was fed to Chris Russell, who timed his pass for Richard Sample to mark his first start as a left winger with a first touch first try.

Gateshead looked stunned and took their second kick off within two minutes.

The second was worse than the first, in that it went straight to Stef Schollick, who went forward, setting up a good ball to be released to the P&S backs.

They simply ran straight and hard and Steve Rogers crossed for a second try with only four minutes gone.

Prudhoe and Stocksfield looked strong in every position, and before the game was ten minutes old were 19-0 up.

A Gateshead line out was disrupted as Jay Neal powered forward.

When the ball was held up and a five metre scrum called, Ed Halford took the ball from base to cross the line.

The kick off from try three led directly to try four.

The ball went straight back to the well-prepared P&S forwards, who launched a counter attack almost to the Gateshead 22 metre area where they were finally halted.

The ball was quickly recycled for Steve Rogers to make nearly 20 yards before again popping the ball up for Richard Sample to score his second, and the side’s fourth try.

Eleven minutes gone and the scoreline read 26-0.

Although the Gateshead side seemed to have little or no ability to stop the flow of scores, they did not make it easy for P&S.

They scrapped and tried to interfere as best they could; what was commendable was that they did so within the laws of the game, ensuring that referee Andy Murray was mainly troubled by each side’s errors and keeping the score.

It was the errors that took up the next ten minutes or so.

The spell ended when poor Gateshead tackling saw Richard Sample make a break before drawing the defenders to him and releasing Chris Russell for a try.

The, by now almost predicable, kick-off fell straight to Ed Halford who charged some 25 metres before setting up a ruck from which the ball was passed quickly out to Chris Russell.

He, in turn, fed Steve Rogers who is not often stopped from five metres out.

With 29 minutes gone, P&S were 40-0 up.

Another interlude of scrappy play was concluded when from a five-metre scrum the ball was sent out quickly for Charlie Tindall to crash over.

Again from the kick-off Gateshead were vulnerable and this time it was scrum half Mikey Brown who scampered over to bring up a half-time score of 54-0.

The second half started almost as the first had ended, with Mikey Brown making a dash almost to the line before handing the ball on to Richard Sample for his third try.

While Gateshead looked dejected, they had the pressure eased when having been totally out scrummed they seemed to simply give up and found themselves on the end of what seemed a very generous decision to penalise the P&S front row and give prop Andy Marsh time in the sin bin.

P&S simply regrouped and pressed on to find Richard Sample again with space and opportunity to score his fourth try.

With the score now at 68-0 and having played against 14 men for five minutes, Gateshead finally got to the P&S try line.

It brought fairly immediate retribution with Steve Rogers completing his hat-trick with the side’s 11th try.

Whilst the home side’s points remained ahead of the clock, they had by now made a full set of changes and those that had played throughout were weary.

The side remained fit but no longer were they dominant, having won the game long before it drew to an end.

Almost headless chicken-like Gateshead scored a second try.

South Shields club Westoe host tomorrow’s game before P&S finally play a match at their actual home ground on October 11.