TN Spring Into Life

Malton and Norton were the visitors as Team Northumbria battled on towards the end of a tough North One East campaign.

And on a warm, sunny day at Bullocksteads, the home side provided some rays of hope for potential promotion success next season.

Ultimately, the home side lost 65-36, but this was a loss against a form team 71 points ahead of TN in fifth place and a team that has won four, drawn one and lost one of their last six games. 

Malton have also claimed the scalps of all but one of the teams above them - including league champions Billingham. Despite the vast differences in fortune both sides have experienced this season, TN made it a competitive and exciting fixture.

“It was a good game,” said TN head coach Andy Buist.

“We had a full squad, with three men on the bench, which we haven’t had since before Christmas.

“We knew we had players in their right positions as well and when we scored and when we looked good we were very good.”

The home support witnessed big hitting defensive tackles, slick handling, attacking aggression and flashes of individual brilliance from their side in quantities unmatched by any of their other performances this season. 

But there were the familiar errors as well.  Missed tackles as a result of poor defensive organisation, lineout mix-ups, and poor passing resulted in the home defeat.

The frustration for TN’s coaching staff and supporters is that this display highlights that the squad is clearly capable of holding their own in North One East. 

The reality is that because of poor attendance at training and players letting the coaches down with last minute withdrawals before a fixture, team errors that lead to losses cannot be erased or ironed out.

“It is very frustrating,” said Buist.

“There are certain elements that need huge work on. Unfortunately they are organisational, which means that we work on them at training during the week.

“But we still don’t have numbers for training. Therefore we are always going to concede.

“We saw a good game because we’ve got good players - we just need to get them to training and playing a bit more."

The former Newcastle Falcon went on to express concern about being able to field a side for next week’s fixture, away against sixth place Sheffield, because the University breaks up for Easter.

“We have asked lads to make an effort to maybe stay up and go down after the game but it’s going to be a tough one.  We’ll see what happens.”

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