After some of the frustrations of last week when Barnie won comfortably enough but squandered far too many scoring opportunities, this was a superb performance, the side playing some of their best rugby of the season in the second half.

N Shields turned up looking eager enough and with a couple of massive bean-pole lineout jumpers that indicated that the Castle pack would have their work cut-out. The weather conditions looked to be in favour of the visitors too, with a steady rain falling heavily enough to make ball handling difficult.

Barnie started well enough and were soon camped in the Shields half and able to try out some of their backs moves. The first one was meant to go to Paul Fenwick coming in off the left wing but broke down in midfield and the Shields defence hacked it clear. Minutes later a similar missed move in the centres had the same result and this time the Shields fly-kick up the field skidded off the turf as first Kirk Thompson and then Fenwick tried to fall on the ball and make safe. The Shields players following up, gathered up the plunder and strolled over for a shock 0-5 lead.

Castle held their nerve, worked their way back up the park, maintained the territorial advantage but struggled to get through the Shields defence which was up in their faces quickly and was well-organised.

On the half hour mark, after a number of drives toward the visitor’s twenty two metre line, fly-half and skipper Kirk Thompson, switched play up the blind side and drew the cover tackler before sending a pass out to Fenwick. Although he had to beat both his opposite winger and a last ditch cover tackle from the full-back he jinked his way over to dive over in the corner.

There was not much else to report in the first half, Castle maintaining a territorial advantage and having plenty of possession but continually kept out by good Shields defence.

In half time discussions, it was agreed that the forwards should take the ball on more themselves to suck in the Shields defence and within minutes of the kick-off, in a desperate effort to keep Castle out, Shields infringed and Thompson slotted over a penalty. Castle never looked back from this point. Other than in the lineouts where Shields had a height advantage which they used to good effect they were outplayed in all aspects of the game. Time after time, the Castle forwards secured the ball and took it on through two, three, four phases before Liam Smart released quick ball to Thompson. The back-line were then able to make the most of the extra space, capitalising on tackle-weary defenders now lacking the back row support which had been sucked into the breakdown. Centre Craig Dominick soon broke through in mid-field for the second try under the posts.

The third try was an eye-catching individual effort. Paul Fenwick reminds me a bit of the old loony tunes “Road Runner”. One minute he’s there, the next its thin air. Think of a defender as Wiley Coyote grasping that thin air, multiply the scenario six-fold and you’ve got a fair picture of Paul’s second try as he sidestepped his way through half the Shields side.

As the game entered the final quarter, Shields suddenly looked overwhelmed. Thompson was now chipping for the corners and on the third occasion, the fullback was tackled by Dominick and the ball popped out invitingly for winger Andrew Stubbs to pick up and score his first try at first team level. Next on the scoresheet was flanker Andrew ‘Eggs’ Clement capping a great personal display by driving through the tacklers from fifteen metres out. Credit must be given to Shields who despite being almost completely outplayed never threw in the towel and managed a score from a lineout drive on the final whistle.

This game was a great warm-up for the relished visit to local rivals Bishop Auckland on Saturday and the team must now show that they can re-create this type of form on someone else’s turf.  Hopefully this will also enable them to climb up the league table in the last month of the season.

To conclude the club would like to note their thanks to Martin Pepper from Barnard Castle School for his assistance with coaching last week. We would also like to express our gratitude to our match sponsor A Jenkins, Montalbo Décor Centre for his generous continued support of the club.