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Official Website ofNew Brighton Football Club (R.U.) |
MATCH REPORT
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| Sunday: February:5th, 2006 | |
| National League 3 North | |
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Pictures by Phil Broster More Action |
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| New Brighton 21 - 52 Bradford and Bingley | |
| Saturday: February 4th. 2006 | |
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Team Sheet:1. Chris Naylor, 2. Phil Buckley, 3. Anthony Probert, 4. Jez Lamb,
5.Jon Sewell, 6. Jon Harris, 7. Wayne Clayton, 8. Kati Tui'pulotu, 9. Alastair Child, 10. Steve Dean,
11. Ian Murray, 12.Richard Halpin, 13. Juan Schoeman, 14. Vinny Dutton, 15.Jim Yarranton,
The Blues, playing against a team lying second in the League
and strong contenders for promotion looked far less inhibited in their play than
in recent matches being far more positive and incisive to give the supporters
Alastair Child, deputising at scrum half for the injured
Alan Hesketh, had a fine game, getting himself on the score board with a try
in the second half and being voted man of the match for New Brighton. That
award could easily have gone to any one of a number of players on the day. Jon
Sewell and Kati Tui’pulotu are always the giants in the side, Steve Dean had
a tremendous game, popping up every where both in defence and attack,
centres Juan Schoeman and Richard Halpin were never found wanting as were
neither Ian Murray and Vinny Jones on the wings. Jim Yarranton, although,
he is not yet the finished article at fullback, grows in stature by the
week. He varied his game intelligently and he has pace, well demonstrated
when he rounded the defence to score his first try in the senior side. He
can only get better. Special mention for the courage and endurance of
Mike Gazzola, (not the more high profile brother Phil) who held the
front row together when he came on as replacement prop for injured
Anthony Probert at the end of the first quarter.
Not so, the last ten minutes of the half were all New Brighton. Steve Dean and Ian Murray both put in some fine runs
and on the stroke of half time, and after putting the Bees under sustained pressure, the Blues took a tap penalty to drive Jon Sewell
over the line under the posts and give Steve Dean the easiest of conversions.
Half Time Score: New Brighton 7 - 21 Bradford and Bingley
The Blues again made a spirited comeback. Both Richard Halpin
and Steve Dean were held short but the pressure was maintained. With admirable
discipline they kept control until, after repeated attempts, Alastair Child
found the gap for a great try, subsequently converted, on 68 minutes. Much a
against the general run of play in this period centre John Leota scored a
converted try to restore the gap some 5 minutes before full time. Still
battling til the final whistle the Blues managed to engineer a little space
on the left which was all Jim Yarranton needed to round off his personal good
day with a try. Steve Dean added the extras from wide out which finished the
game with both the fans and the team feeling that they had played well,
albeit against a stronger side.
Full Time Score: New Brighton 21 - 52 Bradford and Bingley
Next Week At Home Against
TYNEDALE |
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With the alternative attractions of
England v Wales and Ireland v Italy on the television the crowd was sparse but
unusually vociferous and they spurred the Blues into producing the best
performance the Hartsfield faithful have seen for some time. In a game ably
controlled by the excellent refereeing of Mr Chris Sharp and his assistants
both sides contributed to a cracking game of rugby. There was an abundance
of speed and movement in attack against two very robust defences.
plenty to enthuse over. 21 points and three tries is their highest score of the
season and although they leaked eight tries it was due more to the fluidity of
the play than to any weakness of the tackling.
From the kick off the Blues were forced to defend desperately
as the Bees attacked in waves and only deserved good fortune kept the scoreboard
clean. Aggressive defending as much as attacking play forced the visitors back
into their own half but inevitably the gap was found and the big second row
Renier Volschenk strode over for a try converted by Tom Rhodes to set Bradford
and Bingley on their way on fifteen minutes. Tries by wing John Simpson and
No 8 Kevin Yates, both converted by Tom Rhodes followed in the next quarter
of an hour, leaving the Blues trailing 21 points to nil and would seem to
have put paid to any further real home side resistance.
On the restart New Brighton were again dominant but unable
to add to the points on the board as an attempted drop goal flew wide. The
Bees relieved the pressure and from a good penalty kick to touch set up an
unstoppable rolling maul for open side Neil Spence to claim the touch down
on 47 minutes. Three more tries followed from full back Ben Greaves, scrum
half Joe Heta and wing Mark Kirkby with two conversions to push the score
up to 45 points to 7 as the game approached the hour mark.