Birstall Vs Bingham Friendly

With several players unavailable, we travelled to Birstall with a bare minimum, giving a debut to Tom Spibey, Chris Garrod carrying an injury and subs, Lee Fretwell also still recovering from injury and Huw & Chris Packer.

A howling gale blowing the length of the pitch did not bode well for open rugby. Bingham had the wind at their backs but Birstall had a great start keeping possession and play in the Bingham 22 and a penalty gave Birstall the lead. Bingham pulled 3 back with Penalty from Mike Challans 5 mins later. Bingham scrum showed improvement on previous performances’ and after good yards from Chris Garrod, a further penalty from Mike C gave Bingham the lead. On 20 mins, Chris Garrod breaks 2 tackles to score under the posts; converted by Mike 3 -13. After a mess up from an attacking scrum 15m out, Birstall break and kick on and were only denied a score from a fumble at the Bingham line. 5 mins of defence followed with Birstall electing to run several penalties but Bingham held out but lost Paul Foster to a yellow card for not rolling away. A loose ball and Bingham eventually clear and half time comes.

Lee Frets on for Tom Spibey. The 2nd half starts scrappily but after a good forward drive confidence appears to grow. Good defence and tenancious tackling from Ben John at the breakdowns. A break from Mike Challans led to pressure on the Birstall line and after a several phases, Lee Fretwell pops up with the ball crosses for the try; unconverted. With 15 mins left, a clearance kick collected by Lee Fretwell and set up led to a pop to Lee Stokoe and broke the defence to feed Mike Challans just over half way and saw Mike side step a couple of covering challenges to score under the posts and convert 3 – 25. Chris P comes on for Jason Churchill with Marky B moving into the 2nd row. Although Bingham do not threaten again, Bingham control the remaining 10 mins and gain our 1st victory.

Overall a win and contact made with another local club and look forward to a reciprocal game with Birstall later in the season