Houghton Boars 0 - 10 West End
A great win for West End today getting their first win of 2017.
A number of injuries in recent weeks and lack of availability caught up with the squad meaning a low number of available players for the trip to Houghton. Fortunately the cancellation of games elsewhere meant we welcomed some guest players from other teams to the West End fold to ensure the game was played with 15 on each side.
The first half started very well for West end attacking constantly in Houghton's half and getting close to scoring twice. Points were not placed on the board with a missed penalty kick for West End. Dean Henderson worked very hard to get to the try line but was short, well that's what the crowd thought. Still determined to get a try Dean Henderson stretched out and missed the line, unfortunately it was to much of an effort for him to roll back over and the ball was stolen. Houghton gave their all to try and score but Andreas and Ewan tied them up at the back to stop them coming in.
Some fast blitz play across the pitch led to West End breaking the gain line repeatedly to end up 5 yards short of Houghton's try line however the ball was lost as not enough players were there to secure the ball.
A moment of madness came when Ewan Pritchard fell foul of the new tackle laws and got sent off with his first yellow card after an earlier high tackle from John McGrann in the build up followed by another from Pritchard Jr.
The second half came and came into hand when all three showed great skill and passion for West End stealing and playing the ball amazingly.
Pritchard was back on the pitch and Scott Walker came off for a helpful guest centre who played very well swinging ball from left to right very well. West End used the lineouts with variety to keep the home side guessing to great effect with one drive taking 20 yards up the pitch.
White line fever got the best of the team when from 5 yards out Joe Rowan dived for the line and appeared to score but the referee spotted a knock on and gave a scrum for Houghton. The forwards put in a shift by hammering through the Houghton pack, when Adam Healy and John McGrann put in multiple tackles combining together to stop the forwards of Houghton and great heart shown from everyone today. Lots of options in the loose lead to gaps opening and marauding runs from Marra and McGrann amongst others to push West End back up the pitch.
The score board woke up with a guest centre scoring a great solo try in the corner to put West ahead, Ewan Pritchard (who was handed kicking duties as he had the loveliest hair on the day) then tried to redeem himself by putting points on the board with the conversion, unfortunately he missed by a narrow margin from the touch line.
In the last 20 minutes our forwards really stepped up in the game again by smashing the rucks and scrums to dominate again. This gave Callum Venters and the chance to step up his recovery from a lengthy injury and take multiple great runs through the pitch.
The forwards and backs combined putting training skills to use getting up the pitch very well, for another guest player to score a great try for west end. This was not converted by Ewan keeping the score at 10-0.
A controlled 15 minutes followed with some excellent gagme management from the squad, the game then finished and West End were ecstatic after putting heart and soul into the game.
Credit must go out to Houghton who fought a tough battle until the last minute with some great play of their own causing West End problems, by no means was this an easy game!
Also thank you very much to the helpful players from Ryton and Gateshead who deputised for us to ensure that the game went ahead.
