Gainsborough All Blacks 15 North Hykeham 26
This was an interesting game for the All Blacks to play, it was against a team that had scored 35 points against them earlier in the season, they are also in the league that Gainsborough have just left and they are a club that earlier in their life time had taken the same action as Gainsborough in an effort to establish a settled and confident side.
It is clear from the actions of the team post Christmas that the club are developing a settled side and players developing an understanding with each other along side a commitment to the club. Players arrived early for this game in order to have a coaching session before the game kicked off and this certainly paid dividends, throughout the game the home side looked more organised than the previous week at Retford and despite Hykeham running in three tries in the first half it never felt like Gainsborough would concede a big mass of points in the 80 minutes. The home side were not helped when promising youngster Jake Grey had to leave the field with a knee injury, two periods of reorganisation led to first Gareth Wood and then Mark Waterland moving to cover the full back position.
The second half was a success for the Gainsborough forwards, the teams most experienced players are all in this department and the dominating pack pushed their way over the Hykeham line twice, the first try being touched down by Rob Morley and the second one by Daniel Dodsley, Shaun Parker converted Dodsley try and the home side had 12 points under their belt. North Hykeham did respond to the Gainsborough effort and scored a converted try but this was their only score of the half. Gainsborough finished the game with the last word in terms of points scoring when with 5 minutes of the match remaining and following another period of forward dominance, Hykeham kicked away from their own lines to take off the pressure, the ball dropped to club captain Vernon Goude who to everyone's amazement elected to kick an enormous drop goal. It is unusual for prop forwards to score in this manner but they all count. The final score was 15 – 26 and proved to be a good afternoon for the All Blacks even though the result was negative. Special mention must be made of the Ellis brothers in the engine room of the pack, both played excellent games to keep the forwards on top.
Next week is International week and at the time of going to press Gainsborough are in the pool and waiting for a fixture to be confirmed.
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Picture this week courtesy of Wayne Sendall
