With Scotland having defeated England 24 hours earlier in the Calcutta Cup clash, the presence of Scotland and Lions coaching legend Jim Telfer in the Borders dug out was a notable one for the strong crowd in attendance, and the ferocity of his warm-up showed he had lost none of his trademark passion for the game.
Indeed the Borders started strongly, forcing Newcastle to repel their rolling maul in what turned out to be a free-flowing and open encounter, helped no end by the synthetic 4G Druid Park pitch.
With fly half Joel Hodgson running some crafty angles and fullback Lewis Munnelly hitting the line, the hosts gradually got in to their game, and midway through the opening half started their 20-minute scoring blitz as inside centre Grant Connon supported well to touch down in the left corner.
Borders flanker Stewart levelled the scores almost straight from the restart with a textbook rolling maul try in the right corner, before the young Falcons found their stride with a vengeance and ran in three more quickfire tries to scorch in to a 26-5 interval lead.
The first of those was a superb individual run from left wing Jonny Ritson, who weaved a path to the try line down the centre of the field from 30 metres out, Munnelly converting.
Centre Kieron Little followed that up with a try down the left hand side after deft hands from Hodgson created the gap, and in front of watching first team coaches John Fletcher, Peter Walton and Steve Bates the fourth try duly arrived when lively hooker Jack Rigby powered over after a succession of quick offloads.
While the second half lacked much of the clear-cut scoring chances that the first had provided, there was still plenty of endeavour from both teams despite the worsening conditions.
Borders opened the scoring when fullback Dods crossed in the left corner, after a close range line out on the right wing had been worked through the hands to the opposite side.
Falcons flanker George Studd and right wing Shaun McCartney threated on numerous occasions with powerful running in the loose, and it was finally McCartney who claimed a deserved score when he raced 40 metres down the flank, round one tackler and through another, to round off the scoring in the closing minutes.
Falcons junior academy manager, Mark Laycock, said afterwards: "Considering the limited amount of preparation time we had for this game, I thought the team performed very well.
"The offloading and pace of the play was outstanding, we forced a lot of turnovers and I think the people who came down to watch today will go away saying that they've seen a good game with some top young players.
"To coach a team with Jim Telfer in the opposite dug-out was a great honour for myself and the other Falcons coaches who have a huge amount of respect for him, but it is the players who deserve the credit for today."
Newcastle Falcons Under-16s:
Tries: Connon, Ritson, Little, Rigby, McCartney
Cons: Munnelly, Connon 2
Scottish Borders Under-16s:
Tries: Dods, Stewart
Cons: Dods
Newcastle Falcons Under-16s: 15 Lewis Munnelly, 14 Shaun McCartney, 13 Kieron Little, 12 Grant Connon, 11 Jonny Ritson, 10 Joel Hodgson, 9 Ryan Painter, 1 Michael Whitley, 2 Jack Rigby, 3 Chris Bark, 4 Adam Birkett, 5 Joe Rafferty, 6 George Studd, 7 Richard Ridley, 8 Olly Kitson (captain)
Replacements: Nathan Morris, Justin Worthington, Joe Pymm, Matthew Mellish, Cameron Mitchell.
Scottish Borders Under-16s: 15 C Dods, 14 L Beaton, 13 L Farmer, 12 C Wilde, 11 N Swanston, 10 S Hogg, 9 G Learmonth, 1 R Heslop, 2 G Brownley, 3 G Robertson, 4 A Lambie, 5 I Robertson, 6 R Runciman, 7 M Stewart, 8 A Nagle.
Replacements: C Telfer, M Dixon, D Leary, L Mallon, M Hasty, F Orr, R Sutherland, A Scott, E Gracie, E McDougall. |
