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Character shines as Darlington secure their status
Darlington 21 Birkenhead Park 8
IT WAS a huge testament to Darlington's
tremendous character
that they comfortably beat a
stronger side to hang on to their
North One status.
Penrith's win at Middlesbrough
meant victory was essential
and the sheer tenacity of the
Darlington side saw them
through, to the great relief of all
concerned.
They probably couldn't have
done it without their two Australians,
with full back Evan
Haigh scoring 16 points and prop
Dave Tunstead the other five. But
they have developed a lot of
young players who will be all the
stronger at this level next season.
The line-out has been a weakness,
but Chris Palesci won
everything at the front and when
he moved back for an anticipated
catch-and drive his perfect tap
down set up Tunstead for a try
straight off the training ground.
Peeling round from the front,
the prop took it on the burst to
plough over for the crucial score
straight after the visitors had got
the gap down to 14-8.
Despite facing the wind,
Birkenhead had more than their
share of the first half play and
looked confident of overturning
a 14-5 deficit as they began to kick
for territory.
The team who lost the EDF Intermediate
Cup final at Twickenham
the previous week dominated
the first 20 minutes of the
second half, but for all their ability
they couldn't quite put it all
together.
That was chiefly because they
weren't allowed to, which was
never more obvious than when a
catch-and-drive was stopped
inches short and when the ball
was moved out a crunching tackle
went in under the posts.
The Darlington forwards piled
in and won a turnover, with the
frustration for the home pack resulting
in the second of their
three yellow cards.
In a rare blunder, Player of the
Year Haigh's clearance was badly
sliced, allowing the Merseysiders
to keep the pressure on and kick
their second half penalty.
But just at the point when the
game might have turned against
them Darlington came straight
back with Tunstead's try, which
Haigh converted to add to his
three first half penalties.
He also scored a superb try on
the half hour after Birkenhead
conceded a penalty plus ten metres
for backchat well inside the
Darlington half.
Haigh kicked it to touch 30 metres
out on the right and from
Palesci's take the ball was moved
out with fly half Charlie Catterall's
long pass finding Haigh at
outside centre.
His excellent line took him
through the defence before he
veered right and outpaced the remaining
cover to score.
Probably wondering how they
could be trailing 11-0, Birkenhead
came straight back with their
pacy hooker bursting down the
middle to reach the 22, where the
ball was quickly moved out for
the outside centre to race over.
At that point they looked
favourites, but they eventually
had to concede that whenever
they got into a good position Darlington
would come up with an
impressive riposte.
In the last ten minutes coach
Kevin Robinson's men were in no
danger of squandering what they
had worked so hard to achieve.
10:20am Monday 21st April 2008
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