North 2 West, 1st December 2007

Broughton Park 26 v 8 New Brighton

'Park kicked off with a fairly strong wind behind them and promptly put New Brighton under pressure with some driven mauls. After 6 minutes New Brighton were penalised and Ronan O'Brien put 'Park into a 3 - 0 lead.

The 'Park pack were on top in the set scrummage and from one New Brighton scrum pushed them back, but New Brighton retained the ball only for them to be penalised for not releasing the ball. Ronan made the score 6 - 0 after 12 minutes.

'Park, without specialist lineout jumper Jon Knight, were still able to dominate the lineout, with flanker Sam Fuller jumping at the front of the line. On one New Brighton lineout, scrappy ball was won but John Clifford stormed through onto the scrum-half and forced him into giving away a penalty for not releasing the ball. The long kick was just short.

New Brighton did manage one foray into 'Park's half and from a ruck near 'Park's line New Brighton sent a low kick towards the line and won the race to the line to make the score 6 - 5 after 20 minutes.

Two minutes later New Brighton were again penalised for hanging on to the ball but the kick was just wide.

Yet another penalty for 'Park was kicked to within 5 metres of the New Brighton line by outhalf Tom Mapp. 'Park tried the well worn move which has brought them many tries, but this was thwarted. 'Park still retained the ball which was sent to Tom Mapp who flicked it to Joe Kennedy who scored a converted try under the posts to make the score 13 - 5 with 5 minutes to go to half time.

Big No.8 John Clifford made a good break but was stopped only for New Brighton to be caught offside and punished by another Ronan O'Brien penalty to make the score 16 - 5 with 3 minutes of the first half to go.

Many of 'Park's kicks had given the ball back to the opposition who looked threatening when in possession, but when Ben O'Brien kicked ahead the ball went into space, with many 'Park players following up, the New Brighton full back could not control the ball and, picker up of scraps, Pete MacMahon was on hand to score the try which Ronan converted to make the score at half-time 23 - 5.

In the 2nd half with the wind, New Brighton would have to work for any ball because against the wind 'Park would not be able to kick it away to them. Unfortunately that excellent kicker out of hand, Steve O'Connor, was on the bench. Steve did get on the pitch but only to replace Ben O'Brien on the wing. 'Park were keeping possession through many phases and New Brighton were caught offside again and Ronan made the score 26 - 5 after 5 minutes of the 2nd half.

New Brighton did force a penalty out of Broughton Park to make the score 26 - 8 but 'Park retained most of the possession for the rest of the half and came close on a few occasions with 'Big Mitch', who replaced John Clifford at No.8 causing New Brighton problems with some bullocking runs.

Final score 26 - 8.