Hipkiss hat trick nulls Newport

By Tigerstart
April 15 2003

With a combination of U21 players and main team players, the Tigers Extras entertained Newport in a convincing 57-10 victory. The half-century win included a hat trick of tries from Hipkiss who is looking as polished as ever and a new positional change for Peter Short – inside centre.

Tigers combined U21 players with first team members who required vital match practice. The majority of the U21s had played the previous weekend at Oval Park, coming from behind to beat Newcastle Falcons and now look forward to playing Quins this coming weekend at home, whilst the first team are away.

Hamilton was obviously playing for his place, as it seems like Hazza and TT have gone above him in the pecking order. In terms of team selection for the Tigers run-in to the end of the season, Chuter, Nebbett, Deacon may be needed as cover for the forwards, whilst McMullen may play a bigger role with Oz out injured and Raynor and Glederbloom may also be required. Newport kicked off. After a few minutes of settling down, Tigers pushed forwards and after consecutive moves, Short was over in the right hand corner. A few minutes later, another scoring opportunity went begging due to poor handling and then Tigers pressure continued, and Wheeler was held up over the line. The pack continued to drive and Hamilton spun the ball wide through slick hands and good vision in the back line, where GG slipped through the defence. Myring added the conversion in the 17th minute. Newport caught Tigers off guard as their NO.9 Thomas spun quick ball out wide through both centres where back-row Cox was on hand on the wing to power over.

Resulting from Newport’s score, Tigers went back on the attack. After consecutive swarming from left to right, Tigers recycled and set up in the left hand corner where Hamilton passed long through McMullen to Raynor who was over in the right corner, as Newport’s defence was stretched. Tigers were awarded a penalty and took the scrum again 10 metres out from Newport’s line.

In a new move, GG came into the scrum with Short out in the midfield at inside centre –fastest inside centre we have – and he hit the Newport defence hard, that he carried a few with him, as he passed inside to Cook who scored. Myring added the conversion in the 36th minute. To end the half on 33-5, Hamilton was out on the wing and powered over the line, despite an attempt to take him and Myring added the conversion.

In the second half, it was Newport’s turn to touch down, as our defence was stretched along the pitch. It was unclear who scored, but fly-half Hook missed the conversion, 33-10 in the 45th minute. Newport couldn’t then reply to Tigers, as the Extras added another 24 points. In the 47th minute, the ideal scoring platform was set up by a fantastic drive by the Tigers forwards who rolled ¼ of the way down the field. The forwards did come to an end, but it should have continued to rumble down the field, but the ball was passed out to Hipkiss who glided through a gap in between the posts. Myring added the conversion.

Tigers had a penalty and kicked for the resulting lineout, with the forwards working hard. Newport gained possession and cleared form on their own line. The kick was caught cleanly by Myring who ran it and passed to Ajuwa (unseen before winger) who passed to Myring, through McMullen and back to Ajuwa who was held up over the line. With possession not held onto, Newport gathered. A few minutes later, after a scrum there was a back row peel off and storm towards the line but the ball was lost, as Newport gathered possession. It was certainly a pleasing moment for one person in the crowd in the 57th minute, as Peter Wheeler watched his son Ben score a cracking try.

Under pressure in the 60th minute, Newport had a lineout on Tigers line but Tigers rose tall and won possession, and cleared their lines. The last word of the evening went to Hipkiss. In the 73rd minute, after the forwards had driven up field the ball was spun wide with McMullen being the link to allow Hipkiss to power through the gap. McMullen added the conversion.

In the sweetest move of all, the pack drove downfield, Hamilton fed McMullen quick ball and he put Hipkiss through, as he then ran from halfway down field, jinxing to the right hand corner to beat the covering defence and he went over in the right hand corner with tacklers holding onto him. McMullen missed a wide conversion, but Tigers hit the half century in beating Newport 57-10.

Tigers Extras provided such an entertaining evening – the sight of the pack driving ¼ of the way down the field unmarked was amazing. The pack, overall, set up an ideal platform as they were commanding in the loose. Hamilton orchestrated them well and McMullen was a link at fly-half as he was the provider who set up a few of the tries, with Hipkiss on hand to take the pass and burst through the defence.

Myring had an engaging game at full-back, coming into the line, GG was as ever reliable and Hipkiss was awesome. Raynor even looked like he getting more experienced at the game. However, Peter Short was above everyone else as he grafted hard with the pack, patrolled the pack with great intent and sprung up in midfield to take on Newport’s defence. McMullen took over the kicking after Myring was subbed with 1/3 record but was an exciting and option at No.10, where Myring normally plays.

Scoring sequence:
5 mins Tigers try Short 5-0
17 mins Tigers try Glederbloom and con Myring 12-0
22 mins Newport try Cox 12-5
27 mins Tigers try Raynor and con Myring 19-5
36 mins Tigers try Cook and Con Myring 26-5
40 mins Tigers try Hamilton and Con Myring 33-5

45 mins Newport try 33-10
47 mins Tigers try Hipkiss and con Myring 40-10
57 mins Tigers try Wheeler 45-10
73 mins Tigers try Hipkiss and con McMullen 52-10
82 mins Tigers try Hipkiss 57-10

Date: Monday 14th April 2003
Time: 7pm k/o
Weather: dry and crisp evening allbeit for a brief drizzle shower
Crowd: approx 400
Referee: didn’t catch his name as PA system 
was still down
Sin bin: none
MOTM: Peter Short (undisputed winner, for his 
work rate and amazing bursts down the blindside 
added to the new game plan that he is moving to
 centre to add extra power!)
Viewing rating: 9/10
Funniest sight of the evening: The Extras have 
exposed their new weapon – Peter Short – at 
inside centre bursting into the Newport defence with 
huge hits!
Best sight of the evening: Had to be the way we 
walked very slowly out of the ground, just so 
that we could have Josh follow us and we could 
ask him about his motorbike, and wait for him to
drive slowly out of the ground, nod at us in his
helmet and throttle off!
Match reporting team: TT, Pinky, Pinky’s dad,
Colin, John, Tiger-ess, Tiger-ess nephew and 
Inky


Tigers Team:
15 Luke Myring
14 Tom Coles
13 Dan Hipkiss
12 Glen Glederbloom
11 Gareth Raynor
10 Craig McMullen
9 Jamie Hamilton
1 Peter Cook
2 George Chuter (CAPTAIN)
3 Ricky Nebbett
4 Louis Deacon
5 Lee Morley
6 Peter Short
7 Luke Abraham
8 Ben Wheeler
Replacements: 18 James Buckland (73 mins on for 2
 Chuter), 17 Sam Raven (55 mins on for 5 Morley),
 16 Michael Holford (63 mins on for 3 Nebbett), 23 Steve 
Glitherow (64 mins on for 11 Raynor), 20
 Tim Taylor (63 mins on for 15 Myring), 21 Joesph 
Ajuwa (47 mins on for 11 Coles).

Newport Team:
15 Alex Jerrett
14 Chris Thomas
13 Nathan Brew
12 Scott Williams
11 Rhys Ricahrds
10 Michael Hook
9 Matthew Thomas
1 Ian George
2 T R Thomas
3 Rhys Thomas
4 Ben Collins
5 Luke Charteris
6 Adam Cox
7 Craig Hill
8. Marc Popham
Replacements from: didn’t get any names