Last updated at 09:59, Friday, 20 November 2009

Having lost their first two games in Northumberland and Durham Three, Prudhoe and Stocksfield have now gone unbeaten for the last seven games.

Prudhoe and Stocksfield 45,

Hartlepool BBOB 0.

They sit in third place in the league table, but there is a long way to go – indeed ,their next league game will be away to second placed Whitby.

From the warm-up, Prudhoe and Stocksfield looked to be in control.

Nowhere was that more obvious than in the set scrums; so much so that at one point someone on the touchline asked if it was legal for a scrum to be deemed uncontested due to the ineptitude of the opposition.

The game began with P&S kicking up hill and from the first class kick-off, they looked set to stay in the Hartlepool 22 metre area.

The visitors’ playmaker and captain, who was going to have a difficult afternoon, managed to put the ball back beyond the halfway line but it was only a temporary respite.

The ball was superbly taken by Mark Stobo, who took the ball straight back to set the tone for his and the team’s afternoon.

When a penalty saw P&S gain a lineout six metres out, the ball was collected by Matthew Jefferson who fed Mikey Brown.

From there it went to Chris Russell, who gave the ball to Charlie Tindall who scored the day’s first try.

Five minutes later, the ball moved from Steve Rogers to Charlie Tindall who fed Chris Russell for try two.

The home forwards were dominant and had set up the first two scores and just before half time came the forwards’ own reward.

A rolling maul took them over the Hartlepool line only for the ball to be held up.

From the resulting five metre scrum Fraser Davison bossed the pack as he controlled the ball before being awarded the try to give Prudhoe and Stocksfield a half time lead of 19–0.

The second half was good entertaining rugby to watch.

The forwards won the ball and fed the backs who scored.

Whilst it may not take a couple of hours on a Thursday evening to learn this basic principle, the practice and the confidence gained made a difference.

In the rucks and mauls Prudhoe and Stocksfield were controlled and completely dominant.

Releasing the ball from the forwards only gave the ball to the P&S backs who were able to handle well.

This pattern saw Charlie Tindall score his second and the side’s fourth try.

The next try was really a forwards’ try with the front five of Ed Halford, BJ Neill, Nick Sherwin,Jay Neal and Ian Jewitt continuing their dominance and managing to control the set piece to the extent that when the five metre scrum was eased over the line it seemed hard to say that the ball was not properly grounded.

The next five metre scrum was equally well controlled though this time the ball was passed out for Steve Rogers to score try five.

The next try was a real spectacle as the ball was passed from the far side to the near side across the field and then back again with Steve Rogers being the link before the ball finally reached Richard Sample, who crossed the line for score six.

The game was really no contest and concluded a few minutes early with try seven, as Ed Halford undertook what can best be described as a 20 metre dash through almost all the opposition to score under the posts, leaving a couple of the Hartlepool BBOB side laying face down dejected and beaten.

First published at 09:39, Friday, 20 November 2009
Published by http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk