Bivens keeps the pot boiling for Darlington
A SEASON which began disastrously
for Darlington is building
to an exciting climax in which
they hope to avoid a second successive
relegation and win the
Durham Cup.
Coach Kevin Robinson, who
has overseen the team's improvement,
felt Saturday's 51-12
cup win against an experimental
Blaydon line-up was the best performance
of the season.
Although flanker Byron
Kramer left the field with a back
injury, Robinson expects to have
a full squad to select from for
Saturday's trip to Penrith, where
victory will go a long way towards
securing North One survival.
Apart from being a big believer
in the traditions of the county
cup, Robinson is keen for his
team to qualify for the senior national
knockout event, for which
they had to play a qualifier
against Westoe at the start of this
season.
They lost heavily, but have run
the South Shields club close
twice in the league and now face
them for a fourth time in the
county cup final on April 5.
Durham City is pencilled in to
stage the match, but Darlington
might prefer to toss a coin for
home advantage.
Wherever the game is played if
Darlington maintain their improvement
they will have every
chance of victory, although Westoe
also made clear their intentions
in a 46-5 win away to a Mowden
Park second string.
They will be keen to win the
trophy outright this time after
being awarded it by default three
years ago, when Darlington were
deemed to have played an ineligible
player in the final.
Watched by the county selectors,
Darlington's handling and
support work were excellent as
they forged a 43-0 lead early in the
second half before a 15-minute
blizzard stemmed the tide.
Darlington played as a team,
whereas Blaydon's blend of
youth and experience didn't click
until the the last 20 minutes.
They could, however, take
heart from the performance of
some of their under 19s. Lanky
No 8 David Sheldon clearly has a
good future, while centre Fred
Burdon showed glimpses of
class. Andrew Archibald also has
a future, although it might be in
the back row rather than at lock
unless he beefs up.
Blaydon missed a lot of tackles
and were unable to hang on to the
ball as they conceded four tries in
the first half and three more soon
after the resumption.
There was a hat-trick for powerful
left winger Tom Bivens,
who would have had a fourth had
he not handed it to scrum half
Sean Richardson, whose blistering
break sent the winger clear
up the touchline.
Richardson played briefly for
Blaydon two years ago before a
failure to agree terms led to one
of his many moves.
If he is ready to settle down at
a level which matches his ability,
they might be interested in
talking to him again.
Although he is not match fit,
physio Nick Williams suggested
he could be a partial answer to
their current scrum half problems
when he went on and made
a difference in the second half.
He and Matt Hall scored their
tries, both eluding tackles to
skate in from around 20 metres.
Hall, the first-choice hooker,
played most of the game at open
side and finished at centre.
Two more of Blaydon's older
heads, prop Paul Winter and lock
Dave Whitehead, were rather
harshly sin-binned.
The latter appeared to be trying
to break up a sudden bout of
fisticuffs, which was out of context
with the general spirit of the
game.
Darlington prop Dave Tunstead
was also yellow-carded for
his part in the flare-up, but the
ten minutes' rest won't have
harmed a player who is likely to
be a key figure at Penrith.
His fellow Australian, Evan
Haigh, showed his class at full
back, while the other prop, Joe
Oselton, looked a little meaner
after returning shaven-headed
from a night out with former
team-mate Dan Miller.
Skipper Lee Richardson looked
sharp on his switch to centre,
counter-attacking strongly to set
up the first try from 60 metres
after Blaydon dropped the ball.
Bivens also made good ground
before fly half Charlie Catterall
finished it off.
Haigh swerved inside to go
under the posts after taking the
ball on the blind side of a ruck on
the left, then Bivens scored the
next two.
His second resulted from excellent
handling by Catterall, Lee
Richardson and Andrew Pugh.
Haigh's third conversion made
it 26-0 at half-time and on the resumption
he counter-attacked
down the middle following a poor
clearance and turned the ball inside
with perfect timing for Catterall
to score by the posts.
Bivens completed his hat-trick
from the blind side of a ruck before
handing Sean Richardson
the next try.
The scrum half also nipped
over at the dea
11:27am Monday 24th March 2008
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