Carnegie Challenge Cup 2010 First Round

RNRL swept into the second Round of this year's Carnegie Challenge Cup with an emphatic 11 try victory over the Students of Northumbria University. After in some cases a fraught journey up to Tyneside on Friday the squad trained at Jarrow RLFC home club to Armed Forces Developments Officer George Taylor. This facility was very much appreciated and helped in no small part to bring together a team that featured only four of the Brothers from last seasons Inter Services first team squad as well as six players making their debut for RNRL.

Despite the pitch being played on at least once before the sides took to the field it held up remarkably well and allowed the game to be played at a good pace with plenty of good handling from both sides. Ref Gareth Evans stamped his authority on the game from the off penalising the RN for a couple of off early on but the Students attack was well defended. Prop Ben Cartwright broke the deadlock after 8 minutes following a poor drop out from the Students, Cartwright was out on the right of the field and found himself with the ball 15 metres from the line with only the winger to beat, this he duly did to put his side 4 points to the good. The score remained this way for another ten minutes or so before a Botwood grubber was fumbled by the Students Defence and RN Winger Aaron Hanson made the most of the error to touchdown, 8:0. This score signalled a concerted 20 minute period of almost constant pressure from the Brothers resulting in a further five trys before the break. The third try although scored by John Humphries on his RN debut was made by a fantastic 60 metre break through midfield by Tom Boyce. Humphries converted his own score to push RNRL out to 14:0 lead. Another two trys followed in quick succession, the second of which was created by skipper Lewis Taylor who after gathering the kick off broke the first line of defence slipping the ball to Kev Botwood who then set up Tom Boyce to hit the defence at pace and never looked like being stopped, 22:0. The next try was again a result of the Taylor Botwood combination, breaking the line once again Taylor fed Botwood who neatly chipped the defence and gathered his own kick to cross close to the posts the try being converted by Lee Jones. The final score of the half went to skipper Taylor who used his speed and power to beat the defence and cross to the left of the posts, the try was not converted so at the break the RN were well in control at 32:0.
Any thoughts the Students may have had about a come back in the second half were dashed almost immediately after the break, RM Corps player Ryan Chivenor brushed aside the home defence and flipped the pass out to John Humphries who in turn slipped the inside ball to Aaron Hanson who beat the rest of the defence going over under the posts, Alex Scruton adding the extras. Another score from a great kick return by Taylor saw Chris reeves cross for his first senior try after some neat footwork, again Scruton was on hand to add the extras. The final RN scores of the game came halfway through second half and as he had all afternoon Lewis Taylor was involved, scoring the first and setting up the last. Another RN attack on the right appeared to have faltered but Lewis Taylor took the ball and put in an inch perfect cross field kick to the far touchline for sub Josh Tora to snatch the ball out of the sky and touchdown, a great score especially Tora had only been on the field a matter of minutes. The only slight disappointment on the day was that the Students grabbed a consolation try five minutes from time. In fairness it was a well worked effort on the home sides right, Marcus Broad cut a great diagonal line behind the play the ball going from inside to out to round the RN defence for the score.

Besides the well deserved score line the most rewarding aspect of the win was the highly talented crop of new players who came into the side to cover for current injuries and non availability of the more established first team players. With an exciting new list of backs coming through the continuing development of the Brotherhood was again in evidence. Lewis Taylor had a great game as Captain and Loose forward leading by example as always. Manager Jason Steele and Coach Jim Barnes were rightly proud of their players after the long trek north, in some cases involving a round trip of in excess of 800 miles.

Adam McCrohan, Aaron Hanson, Lee Jones, Tim Vonderavalu, John Humphries*, Alex Scruton, Kev Botwood, Ben Cartwright, Johnny Platt, Ryan Chivenor*, Tom Boyce, Manasa Tamoi*, Lewis Taylor. Replacements (All Used) Nick Bell*, Mike Payne*, Chris Reeves, Josh Tora* (* denotes first team debuts)

Scorers: T . Taylor(2) Hansen (2) Humphries(2), Jones, Botwood, Boyce, Reeves Cartwright,
G Scruton 3, Jones , Humphries (all Conversions)