Westoe skipper is in line for more honours

9:45am Monday 7th April 2008

Westoe 36 Darlington 33

WESTOE skipper Gareth Nesbit could be rewarded with the county captaincy after lifting the Durham Cup on Saturday.

The combative prop is in line to succeed Lee Richardson, his opposing captain in the enthralling final at Mayfield Park, Hartlepool.

The only disappointment for Richardson in leading Durham to promotion from the County Championshipfs bottom tier was that the final was not played at Twickenham. But this year the Shield final will be at HQ on June 1, which means Nesbit could still have plenty of rugby as well as a big incentive ahead of him.

One person he will certainly want in his county side is Richardsonfs younger brother, scrum half Sean, who played a huge part in keeping his side afloat on Saturday.

His kicks led to two tries, and in the last move of the game his break up the left sparked the brilliant handling which ended with replacement right winger Adam Kibirige touching down.

It was too late to affect the result of a hotly-contested match, but it was indicative of how Darlington kept bouncing back off the ropes, right to the death.

With Blaydon and Mowden Park qualifying for the EDF National Trophy through their league status, only the winners on Saturday would join them.

It was a repeat of the qualifier they contested at the start of the season, and while the gap has narrowed enormously Westoe were still the better side.

But after going 14-3 down Darlington simply wouldnft lie down.

Their problem was that they were always playing catch-up as the only time they led was through a fifth-minute penalty by full back Evan Haigh, who added two more in getting the gap down to 19-16 at half-time.

Tries were then alternated until it was 29-28 entering injury time, at which point Haigh was faced with a conversion which might have secured a remarkable lead. But from well out on the left he pulled it wide, and in any case there was still time for one more try each.

The clincher came when the Westoe forwards drove into the right corner and replacement Mark Olugbode glided through a gap in the centre to score by the posts. Sam Rasch, the dancing boy fly half, converted for an eight-point cushion.

Rasch, a Kiwi with an aggressive streak, generally made little progress with his attempts to emulate Jason Robinson. But he did begin the counter-attack which ended the 20-minute period in the middle of the second half when the score was locked at 24-23.

As he had clearly opened up the opportunity to move the ball wide on the left it was a surprise when centre David Haswell chose to kick for the corner. But the ball held up on the crosswind, Johan Saaiman nipped in ahead of a hesitant opponent to collect it and slipped it back inside for winger Paul Alexander to score.

There were two yellow cards for each side, of which Raschfs was the most merited and Tom Wilkinsonfs the most costly.

The Darlington No 8 had been at the forefront of the forwardsf steely resistance, and Westoe scored two tries either side of half-time while he was off.

They won the try count 6-4, two of their three in the first half coming from open side flanker Kerry Wood, who was in the sinbin during the second half period when there was no scoring.

The other first half try came when Saaiman, a rangy centre, finished off an excellent handling move up the right, while Darlington were awarded a slightly fortunate penalty try when the score was 14-6.

Sean Richardsonfs kick down the right touchline from a ruck on his own 22 stood up nicely for winger Alex Lineton, who almost made the line. When he attempted to pass inside his target was taken out off the ball, although there was no certainty that a try would have been scored as the ball was not going to hand.

Westoe drove a maul 20 metres early in the second half for lock Paul Bird to score, then another excellent kick by Richardson produced a try for left winger Tom Bivens, who shrugged off two tackles to score by the posts.

Haighfs conversion had the gap down to one point, and thatfs how it stayed until the glut of late scoring was started by Alexander.

That looked like curtains for Darlington, especially when Westoe followed up by almost driving a maul over and replacement lock Bill Smith was sinbinned for pulling it down.

But Darlington broke out through the determined chase of a clearance kick by fly half Charlie Catterall, and after a penalty, plus ten metres for backchat, Catterall went for the line.

He was stopped but the ball came back on the left for turbocharged prop Dave Tunstead to burrow over.

That left everything to play for in injury time, but Westoe were not going to be denied their first outright Durham Cup triumph since 1956 and Olugbodefs try clinched it.

Saracens booked their first Heineken Cup semi-final place via a deserved 19-10 victory over a disappointing Ospreys at Vicarage Road.

A try from replacement Francisco Leonelli and some topdrawer kicking from Glen Jackson saw off the Welsh side.

Saracens will now face 2006 winners Munster at Coventryfs Ricoh Arena, having avenged last monthfs 30-3 EDF Energy Cup mauling by Ospreys.

Saracens suffered two injury setbacks in the space of a couple of minutes as Brent Russell then Andy Farrell were forced off.

But their 6-3 half-time lead was extended to ten points within two minutes of the restart when their two replacements combined for the first try of the day.

Adam Powell fed Leonelli and the Argentina international knew evaded Ryan Jonesf last-ditch tackle to score.