Darlington RUFC 17 Guisborough RUFC 24, Northumberland and Durham RU division two

IN what was Guisborough’s final away game of the season, the team travelled to Darlington with the league already won. The hosts had plenty to play for, with second place in the league up for grabs, and it showed early in the game as they started brightly with plenty of possession. A kick over the Guisborough defence bounced just too long and out of play, before a penalty was awarded to Darlington on the Guisborough 22 metre line. Electing a shot at goal, the kick was successful.

Stung into action, Guisborough attacked. Alex Ruff broke through the midfield and passed to the onrushing Ewan Cameron, who took play up to the Darlington try-line. Recycled ball was shipped to the right along the backline but a knock-on stopped a try scoring opportunity. However, an infringement had been spotted by the referee and the visitors elected to kick to touch five metres out. From the line-out, Ben Buckworth rose to collect the ball cleanly and on landing noticed a gap in front of him, which he burst through and touched down to score.

From the re-start Rob Leggott set the visitors attacking again. Passing to Matthew Flint, he tore through tackles taking play to the half-way line. Buckworth was on his captain’s shoulder and strode further forward, before a pass to Tony Conway released the scrum-half and he sprinted clear of defenders to score under the posts. A wayward kick-off by Darlington failed to travel ten metres, giving Guisborough a scrum on half-way. The dominant pack set up an attack. Jack Robinson broke left and brought Cameron into play; a long striding run took him through and past tackles to score a fine try.

At half time, it was Darlington 3, Guisborough 17.

Kicking off the second half, Guisborough set off on the front foot, making their way upfield. Darlington were awarded a penalty, giving them the opportunity to clear the ball out of their half. The kick to touch though, did not reach its target and was caught by Robson. Showing great strength, the winger burst through tackles back into the home team 22. Drawing the final defender towards him he offloaded to Phil Shields, who crossed the whitewash to score his team’s bonus point try under the posts.

Undeterred, Darlington began to see more of the ball and with this Guisborough committed several infringements, which culminated in a team warning. The referee’s words were not heeded and immediately a further penalty was awarded to the home team. With it, Buckworth was shown a yellow card. Kicking the penalty to touch, five metres from the visitors’ try-line, Darlington won the resulting line-out. A catch and drive saw their pack move forward and score. Penalties were stacking up against Guisborough and the visitors could not get any fluency to their game.

The home team continued to attack and increase the pressure on their opponents. A drive by the Darlington pack went beyond the try-line but the ball was not grounded. It did give them a scrum five metres out, from which the hosts’ number eight broke from and crossed to score. Now within one score of Guisborough, the away team suffered another blow when Cameron was shown a yellow card and Darlington sniffed a chance of getting something from the game.

With some excellent defensive work by Guisborough, the home team could not eek out another score before the referee blew his whistle for full-time with the scoreboard reading Darlington 17, Guisborough 24. Robson was successful with two conversions.

Guisborough are now promoted from level eight to seven, but the RFU have restructured the league to 12 teams in order to reduce travelling so the outcome /will not be known until June.

It has not just been a successful season for Guisborough first team – the club's second team, under the guidance and management of James Davies, travelled to Stockton knowing that victory would give them the title of Tees Valley Social League champions. Tries by Jannie Jacobs (two), Sandy Turner, Paul Towers, Max Wood, Sam Archibald and Ryan Mitchell saw the team run out 41-12 winners.