After a tough encounter only 4 days before, Jarrow Vikings were in action again against arch rivals Peterlee Pumas in the National Tier 4 Cup Competition. The Tier 4 Cup has been introduced in 2012 to see the best teams from across Great Britain play in a National Cup to find top Amateur Rugby League Club.
Jarrow and Peterlee were invited to play as the top 2 teams from the North East in 2011.
The weekend’s results saw mixed fortunes for the 2 sides, with Jarrow convincing winners against East Cumbria Crusaders and Peterlee losing to Sunderland by 2 points.
Obviously smarting and fired up from the defeat by Sunderland, the big Peterlee side set off at a tremendous pace and scored after only 90 seconds, a well worked try by play maker Luke Watson saw the ball spread wide and catch the visitors cold and concede the first try.
Jarrow were struggling to get their hands on the ball and were frustrated at the amount of errors they were making and the amount of possession and territory they were allowing the home side.
It was 5 minutes into the game before Jarrow actually got possession of the ball and tried to build an attack, only for it to be snubbed out by the ferocious defence.
On 16 minutes the home side extended their lead when their centre cleverly chipped the oncoming defence to re-gather and score under the sticks, 12 – 0.
Peterlee were unfortunate to lose Luke Watson due to him sustaining a broken nose in a tackle, it proved to be the turning point at the same time as the introduction of Jarrows prop Mark Walker.
With almost his first touch Walker crashed over following a tap penalty by Graham Lupton to spot a gap and put the ball back into the path of the onrushing prop, Lupton added the conversion.
Some good play off the back of the scrum 30 metres out saw Jarrow play 3 tight plays to gain metres and the other prop Jordan Robinson crossed the whitewash, Lupton leveling the score at 12 all.
More Vikings pressure in the 26th minute saw some desperate defence by the Pumas on their own line, resulting in them conceding a penalty, rather than take the points on offer Jarrow pushed the ball wide to the waiting winger, Dave Green to cross in the corner.
A great interception by the alert Lupton saw him race clear of the defence to score in the 31st minute, stretching the score to 12 – 22.
Peterlee rallied and pressured the visitors line and an unfortunate penalty saw them push for a score as Jarrow had done at the other end, however Jarrow’s Phill Wall shot out of the line to early and was penalized for offside and as it was the 3rd repeat offence he paid the price and was sent to the sin bin for the second week in a row!
Peterlee capitalized immediately and crashed over from the resulting penalty, the conversion closing the score to Peterlee 18 – 22 Jarrow at half time.
A mistake by the Peterlee winger off the re-start put pressure straight on the home side and Jarrow capitalized again from the base of the scrum and 3 plays later second row David Norman scored, Lupton adding the conversion.
On 44 minutes some hard running from Norman took play close to the line and once again Walker was on hand to crash over and reach out to score.
The game was not over as Peterlee struck on the hour mark following an error by Jarrow, 3 minutes later the pacey winger out sprinted the Jarrow defence to score and reduce the deficit to 28 – 40.
On 65 minutes Jarrow once again used the scrum as a platform and after 2 patient build up plays Lupton saw the opening and sniped in from close range.
A great kick to touch by Lupton gained metres up field for the Vikings and the quick feet of winger Grahame Ross put Lupton in a position to complete his hat trick of tries although he was not finished with the boot.
A great, powerful break by centre Craig Jones and a quick play the ball got the Pumas on the back foot again and Reece Young picked up the ball and danced through the would be defenders, handing off on the way to skip over the line and score. Some superb handling from the visitors saw the ball moved out to the left for Jones to finish off the move and Lupton to round off the scoring for the evening, a resounding 56 points to 28 victory for the Vikings.
Jarrow now proceed through to the last 16 of the competition and are in the hat with the best from Yorkshire, North West, Cumbria, London, South East and the Midlands.