Sat 26 Nov 2022
This weekend Pavs travelled the short distance to Castle Park to take on Doncaster Phoenix RFC in round 11 of the Regional North East One competition. Recent games between the two clubs have been highly entertaining affairs with both sides trying to play an expansive, modern game so the gathered crowd were expectant of a feast of running rugby.
The game kicked off on a slightly dank but calm afternoon. Doncaster were the first to register a score with a well struck penalty in the early minutes. Further pressure resulted in a well taken try on fifteen minutes to give Doncaster an 8-0 lead. Pavs then got the journey out of their legs and began to make inroads into the Doncaster half. They made several forays into the Doncaster half including spectacular breaks via Dan Flint, Jared Kelly and Tom Davies, only to be held out by determined home defence. This seemed to be a repeating pattern for the half until Doncaster struck in the dying minutes to extend their lead to to 15-0. One might say that honours were even but the scoreboard lead reflected rather more incisive play by the home side.
At the start of the second half, Pavs resumed the action in a determined style. Minutes in, vice captain Steve Allen finished off a driving maul to bring the score to 15-5 in favour of Doncaster. The rest of the half was an even affair until seventy minutes when pacey full back Matt Molyneux sprinted in following an expansive backs move to narrow the lead to 15-12. The last ten minutes was a rather tense affair with Pavs pressing for a score but never crossing the whitewash. As these things tend to play out, Doncaster drove over out wide in the dying embers of the game to go further in front at 20-15 which was how the game ended.
All in all, a thoroughly good game of rugby much enjoyed by both spectators and players alike. Pavs probably will feel that they missed out on at least a bonus point but surely cannot be disappointed by the overall performance.
Next weekend Pavs welcome Heath RFC to The Stump, 2.15 kick off.
Squad - Allen, Wells, Collier, Flanagan , Plant, Alton-Smith, Reeson, Eggleshaw, Flint, Billam G, Rimmington, Billam D, Kelly, Davies, Molyneux.
Replacements - Jones N, Taylor O
Man of the Match - Alistair “Planty” Plant.
Mentioned in Dispatches - the entire squad - really good defensive effort and all round team performance.
Nigel Youl
Team Manager
