Young Saints successful in the sun

 The Falcons’ under-18 side were well-beaten by a strong Northampton side in Penrith this afternoon in front of a healthy and enthusiastic Cumbrian crowd.

Under the chilly northern sun, the Newcastle Eyas never looked likely to trouble the visitors, who were a bigger and more powerful side, but our team never gave up and made the Saints work for their win.

Although South Lakeland took a battering of rain earlier in the morning, up at Penrith RUFC’s Winters Park the sun was out and there was a good view around the area for the sheep behind the seats on the eastern side of the pitch.

Northampton started the stronger and threatened the Falcons’ tryline, but decided to settle for a penalty after the referee called the home team offside. Captain Harry Mallinder put the travellers 0-3 ahead.

Falcons winger Dan Marshall made a run into the 22 on the right but was unable to break through the defence. The play was brought left and Tom Small chipped over the rushing blue line into a defender’s arms, but the play was brought back for a penalty that Brett Connon kicked over to equalise.

With twenty minutes gone and the scores level, there was optimism among those of a Geordie persuasion but from the kick-off Dan Taylor had a box kick charged down by Josh Peters and Lewis Ludlam, Northampton’s number eight and for me the best player on the pitch, gathered to drive for the line. The Falcons strayed offside and Mallinder restored his side’s advantage.

The Saints immediately went on the attack again and Ludlam outpaced the home defence to hack on a chip, before his back row colleague Will Allman picked up the loose ball and fell over the line. Mallinder kicked the conversion and added another penalty with the last play of the first half when Guy Coser was sin-binned, the referee running out of patience with the Falcons’ indiscipline.

In the second half Northampton attacked straight away in an attempt to extend their 3-16 interval lead. A flowing move to the right came to strong man Rotimi Segun but the winger was unable to get the ball safely into his hands with the line beckoning.

The next points were not long in coming though. From a penalty in the Newcastle 22, Mallinder took a pass in the centre and skipped through the defence to score under the posts, before adding the extras himself.

Seconds later, hooker James Fish drove through the tackles on the right to give Northampton the bonus point, Mallinder bringing up the 30-point level.

The Falcons began to fight back now and put together a strong driving maul on the left but lost the ball forward. Segun set off on the break through the middle but the move broke down when the Saints were penalised for crossing, and the visitors were unable to capitalise when they stole the Falcons’ lineout from the penalty.

Connon made a good break from halfway and almost got to the 22, but had little support and his floated pass to left winger Luke Davison went into touch.

The final stages of the game became scrappy but eventually Segun got free on the left and raced in to score the Saints’ fifth try, the conversion of which brought an end to an entertaining game.

The result means the Falcons’ youngsters have now lost all four of their matches in the Northern Conference of this season’s Under-18 League. Their campaign ends a week today at Worcester.