Papa Johns Community Cup Final
Dinnington 72 Huntingdon and District 24
(Half Time 20-17)
It was fun in the sun for Dinnington and their band of travelling supporters who made the journey north to Darlington’s 25,000 all seater Mowden Park to witness the team claim their first trophy in a major cup competition for more than 2 decades. Having overcome Hoylake from the Wirral and West Yorkshire’s Bramley Phoenix on route to the final it was Midlands based Huntingdon who stood between Dinnington and the silverware.
In bright sunshine and temperatures passing 20 Celsius the enclosed stadium offered little breeze as Dinnington started the game at a furious pace. Roared on by an enthusiastic following and guided by a calm looking Matt Challinor in his new role as head coach Dinnington proved they could maintain this energy throughout in a way Huntingdon simply couldn’t match.
A tight first half saw Dinnington gain early reward forcing the opposition into conceding a penalty close to the 22-metre line for going over the top. The resulting penalty was neatly dispatched by Will Cockerham.
As Dinnington pressed forward in search of more points the opposition might consider themselves slightly fortunate when what appeared to be a deliberate knock forward seemed to go unnoticed by the officials wrongfooted the Dinnington back line and allowed Huntingdon through for the game’s first try. The try having been converted this seemed to do little to dampen the spirits in the Dinnington ranks who were soon back on the front foot and over the line for a neatly converted try of their own scored by Mike Leach and converted by Will Cockerham.
Displaying evidence of why they had earned their place in the final Huntingdon then came back strongly and in the face of stern Dinnington defence they eventually got themselves over in the corner following a well worked lineout.
Unable to convert following an excellent charge down from Ben White the visitors slender 2 point lead was soon overhauled by Dinnington whose neat interplay between forwards and backs was beginning to give the opposition all kinds of problems. Dinnington went over and converted to open up a 5 point lead. Once again however Huntingdon were not to be deterred and tight work in the forwards combined with neat handling by the backs saw them come back strongly. The pressure was well repelled by an organised Dinnington defence who were looking to progress forward when the slightest of handling errors around the ruck presented Huntingdon with a scrum opportunity just outside the Dinnington 22. With the Huntingdon scrum straining under excellent Dinnington pressure, a play to the openside if not a turnover looked likely when a skilled pickup at the base by the big
Huntingdon number 8 was followed by a powerful run on the blindside. Despite cover defence coming across momentum was on his side as he surged over the line to level the scores once again.
Another challenging kick from the corner proved too much for Huntingdon and the scores were level at 17 all as the clock reached 35 Minutes.
The remaining minutes belonged firmly to Dinnington as they pressed forward against a scrambling opposition defence who worked hard to repel the attack with several recovery tackles and some excellent kicking out of defence. Eventually a tiring Huntingdon found themselves offside at the ruck close to the 22-metre line and fairly central presenting Dinnington with the opportunity to end the half in front. The resulting penalty kick was again neatly dispatched by Cockerham to give Dinnington the edge in a hard-fought half.
Although it might be argued that in part the strength of Dinnington’s squad in comparison to the opposition who appeared reliant on a core 15 may have had some impact, Dinnington put on a second half performance that can only be described as sublime. Dinnington ran in 7 tries with 5 converted and were awarded a penalty try in comparison to 1 converted try from Huntingdon.
Dinnington started the half with the same upbeat tempo in which they ended the first. Receiving kick deep in the right corner they made swift progress through the hands before a probing kick caused the Huntingdon right wing all kinds of difficulties resulting in a lineout close to the 22. An excellent catch and drive and break from the resulting maul saw Dinnington over in the left corner with a try from Ayrton Radford for the first points with barely 4 minutes played. The conversion was narrowly missed but within minutes Dinnington were over for another score.
With fly half Kai Ramrattan now guiding the team forward at every opportunity in amagnificent display of forward running and accurate kicking, Huntingdon struggled to arrange their rear guard and there was no looking back for Dinnington. A similar move to the first but this time on the right wing was rounded off by Jamie Shaw. An excellent kick was to follow taking the score to 32-17. Shortly after a great move this time up the centre saw Jamie Shaw in under the posts to move the score further away from a very stretched Huntingdon.
Another try in the left corner from Will Cockerham which proved a challenge for the kickers all day went unconverted moving the score to 44.
Just as Dinnington looked to be having matters all their own way Huntingdon gave their travelling support a glimmer of hope with a converted try of their own. Having be thrown a lifeline with the award of a penalty in centre field close to the Dinnington 22 Huntingdon opted to run the ball swiftly rather than collecting an easy 3 points and managed to find a gap in the regrouping Dinnington defence.
With the difference between the sides standing at 20 points and a little over 10 minutes to go there was no let up by Dinnington. A run from deep by Steve Leach was followed by a superb kick down the left. Just as he looked to collect for a brilliant individual try the ball was deliberately Knocked on by a desperate Huntingdon defence. The result a penalty try and the Dinnington score up to 51.
3 more tries were to follow as a relentless Dinnington put the opposition to the sword. A well worked move up the centre led to another try under the posts for Steve Leach. Followed by 2 more finished off on the left by James Eggerton and Will Cockerham, all of which were accurately converted. The final conversion proving to be the last action of an exhilarating game.
A points tally of 72 is the highest score recorded for a final in this competition and with more than half of the Dinnington squad coming through from the junior ranks in the last 2 years things look promising for the future.
