Westoe aim to teach students another lesson
ONE hard lesson the Loughborough Students have learned is that Westoe are no pushovers.
Three times the teams have clashed, and on each occasion it has been the bright young men of English rugby who walked, rather to their surprise, dejectedly from the field.
But on none of those previous encounters has nearly so much rested on the result as when they come to Tyneside next week for the re-arranged fixture.
With Wood Terrace now occupied by South Shields Cricket Club, Jarrovians have come to the rescue by making their Lukes Lane ground available.
However, the night – almost certainly Tuesday or Wednesday with a 6.30pm kick-off – has not yet been confirmed.
The Students are locked in the final straight of a fascinatingly-close battle with Macclesfield and Caldy for the National 2 North crown with a play-off promotion opportunity for the runners-up.
Any final positional permutation of the trio is possible, which is why Loughborough will be desperate for a win, and the extra bonus point that could come with it.
Their fortunes have prospered since, against all expectations, Westoe beat them 22-16 in the third game of the season.
The Students, with the best facilities in the land, then got into their winning ways, and went to the top of the table at the end of October and doggedly remained there.
Meanwhile, one-field Westoe have done pretty well in their first season among the National elite, achieving a highly commendable sixth-top spot which, also with a game at Preston Grasshoppers still to play, they are likely to retain.
The sports orientated university side changes year by year, and so none of the present squad will be aware – or, indeed, care – that their predecessors were twice beaten at Wood Terrace in National Trophy contests, the last time being a one-sided 29-3 defeat in November 2008.
But their officials will well remember the tenacity of the Dunes Adventure Island-sponsored Shieldsmen.
The First XV are through to final of the Durham Senior Cup, provisionally rearranged for May 12, after Billingham withdrew.
semi-final.
The traditional competition, suspended last year after fatuously being reduced to just four teams, should have reached such an unsatisfactory conclusion.
*Also unhappily from the Colts' viewpoint was that they were awarded the Durham Under-18 Cup after fellow finalists Consett were axed for belatedly saying they could not play the game on the date arranged.
Team manager Raymond Bays said: "We had recently beaten them with ease in the league and were confident we would do so in the final."
Their league season ends at Percy Park tomorrow, departing at 11am for a 12.45 pm kick-off, the full squad to attend.
*The attractive lady accompanying Westoe fourth official David Burrows on the touchline during the Caldy game on Saturday was Liverpudlian Moira Pritchard, 29, who has just been selected to perform that duty at the Women's World Cup in London this summer.
She had accompanied match referee Dave Edmunds from Merseyside so that David, a former Fourth XV captain at Westoe, could give her an insight into what the onerous job entails.
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Tuesday 22 May 2012
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