All Blacks win but Maoris are beaten

The All Blacks, playing at home against Newark, returned to winning ways with a solid team performance and positive comments from coach Harry Sampson.

Gainsborough bossed the scrums even when they had to make adjustments after Max Humphrey left the field injured on 10 minutes.

There had been some changes in the team from the previous week. Tom Parkinson came in for Shaun Parker at 10, Max Humphrey for club captain Vernon Goude at tight head and Zac cam in at full back with the ever reliable Dawson going to the wing.

From a player point of view there is real strength in depth at the club and all are now playing and competing for places in the side.

The All Blacks scored two tries prior to half-time, Dawson went over following good ball through the backs and Chadwick scored receiving the ball from the back of a forward drive. Tom Parkinson kicked both of the conversions, and half-time saw a 14-0 advantage to the All Blacks.

The second half was more of the same. Gainsborough went on to score two more tries and maintained their advantage even though they had a 10-minute spell when they were reduced to 14 players.

Try scorers were Tom Parkinson and Andy Turner, Tom seeing a gap when receiving the ball 20 metres from the line and Andy picking the ball up at the back of a ruck and when the Newark side didn’t seem to want to tackle him he went over for the try. Tom kicked all the points.

The man of the match award went to Nathan at scrum half but several players were in the frame. Chadwick had another fine game as did Dawson and Parkinson, while all of the forwards played well but special mention needs to be made of the effort and work rate of Tooke who again worked hard in the engine room. It was good to see Padget return to the side on the substitutes bench. He got a run out at full back when Dawson left the field with 15 minutes to go.

Gainsborough Maoris travelled to Market Rasen to play their fourth team with a squad of 20 players and put in a solid performance but were on the wrong end of a 28-0 scoreline with Rasen having a strong and mature side who were difficult to break down.

Wayne Sendall captained the side on the day and was well pleased with the effort of all of his players. Man of the match for the Maoris was Dave Luther who played his first game at scrum half, and special mention for Tim Tanner who had an outstanding game at No 8 and Tom Bonner who worked hard throughout and tackled like a demon.

This weekend the All Blacks play Cleethorpes 2nds and the Maoris take on Grimsby 3rds .