I'll open this one with a massive thank you to the coaches and staff at Consett who went out of their way to help organise this fixture on a weekend where we both had no opposition. Friday night, under the lights on the first team pitch, what a fantastic experience you provided the lads from Bishop!

On to the rugby. Historically these two teams have always been fairly evenly matched and have produced some excellent contests over the years. This was no exception. Consett started really strong opening the scoring. They have some incredibly powerful runners who Bishop struggled to deal with early in the game. Through some great team play and strong direct lines mid-way through the game they and stretched their lead to 25-10.

Credit to Bishop who upped their tackling and really impressed with their handling skills bringing it back to 30-30 with a few minutes to go, only losing it to a late run from Consett with the final score being 35-30.

It was great to see the lads putting into place some of the skills they have been working really hard on in training. In particular creating space with the forwards then getting the ball out wide for our fast runners. I think it says a lot that every try was scored by a different player and shows their development as a team.

Well done to all involved for a great game played in the right spirit. We look forward to hosting Consett in a few weeks.