Papa Johns Cup comes to early end

GAB boarded the bus hopeful of repeating the previous week's excellent league victory over the unbeaten High Wycombe, but sadly were caught short by a blistering start by North who ran in 3 tries in the first 20mins for an 19 point lead, and Rhys Andrews was sent to the bin for a deliberate knock down.

After that third score, GAB started to gain more territory and possession due to consistent infringements by North players, eventually resulting in a team yellow card for a North backrower. GAB were unable to capitalise on this pressure with errors, some poor decisions and strong North goal line defence (we won't mention Miles Johnson's kick to the 'corner'). That second quarter ended scoreless and the half time score was 19-0

GAB started the 2nd half as they ended the first - plenty of possession, but again not enough accuracy (we won't mention Tim Price's kick for the corner either!). They did get the ball over the whitewash but the referee deemed that James Groves was held up, despite evidence from unsubmittable sideline video footage.

Evidence of GAB resurgence was confirmed when North opted to kick for goal after a rare foray deep into the GAB half. 22-0

With time running out GAB started to take more risks and this allowed North to run in a long range try, but GAB then got themselves on the scoresheet. Some good carrying put James Groves into space and he chipped over the top - about to score with his chase he was tackled off the ball and worried that the ref wouldn't give the penalty try, Manu Loubet pounced on the loose ball to make sure. Thanks to the vagrancies of Union laws, that left George Pamenter with a touchline conversion rather than the given 2 points a penalty try would have provided. George nearly judged his banana kick in the windy conditions to perfection, but the kick swung agonisingly wide. 27-5

North continued to infringe and were lucky that yellows weren't handed out sooner, especially for a late high hit on Miles Johnson. When the ref did eventually reach for his pocket, it was to the same 6 who'd been booked in the first half, so the red card quickly followed.

North were able to put the game to bed with one more try before Tap Social Man of the Match Rhys Andrews picked from the base of a scrum to beat 4 defenders and dot down. George Pamenter added the extras for a final score of 32-12.

The scoreline after that 20 min period was 13-12 to North, and reflected more about the game and this team. It has been a great year, with a 3rd place finish in the league and couple of games where opportunities were missed which otherwise would have seen a 2nd place finish. Highlights obviously being that win at High Wycombe, recovering from 26-0 down at Banbury to draw with the clock in the red and the 9 game unbeaten run to end the league after the disappointing defeat to Tring first game after Christmas. Next season the target is to go better!