Billingham director of rugby Stewart Evans says the club face a difficult task to stay to stay in National Three North after losing a back and forth thriller 45-43 at home to Bradford and Bingley
Billingham director of rugby Stewart Evans says the club face a difficult task to stay to stay in National Three North after losing a back and forth thriller 45-43 at home to Bradford and Bingley.
But he stressed they will not be giving up hope while there is still rugby to be played and fixtures against Burnage and Huddersfield to negotiate.
Billingham freshened up their backs to add creativity and scored six tries.
But they were decimated by injuries to their pack and the West Yorkshiremen scored seven touchdowns, including one with less than two minutes to play.
Billingham kept going until the final whistle but their luck ran out as Peter Evans missed a drop goal attempt from virtually the last move of the game.
“It was a must-win game but fair play to them,” Evans said. “We were under the cosh up front and just couldn’t get away from them.
“We lost our second row Anthony Rumis after five minutes to a back injury, tight head prop Steve Smith had to go off just after half-time after taking a heavy knock and replacement Liam Armstrong went off late in the game with a shoulder injury.
“We gained two points, which is a bonus, but it puts us under real pressure for our last two games.
“But hopefully a few injuries will clear up and we will go again.”
Billingham were 12 points up at one stage in the second half, but the Bees would not lie down. Smith crossed for the home side before going off injured, with their other tries coming from his fellow forwards Kyle Scott and Stuey Anderson, and backs Peter Evans, Craig Shepherd and Elliot Husband.
Evans added: “We’ve come up a few leagues over the years and we are a club that’s tried to produce our own players.
“If we do go down, there are no financial implications and we could be playing the likes of Boro and West Hartlepool.
“We’ve got to be realistic - we’ve lost a few games on the bounce. But we like to play at the highest level possible and Burnage is a winnable game.
“We need a five-point win and if we can get 10 points from the two games remaining it would be fantastic and give us a chance.”
Middlesbrough need to win one of their remaining two games against either runaway leaders Cleckheaton or Alnwick to retain their North One East status after losing 26-7 at Driffield.
Boro went to the East Yorkshire Wolds in confident mood after a three-match winning run, but never really got going.
They fell behind to a converted try and Matthew Todd missed two kickable penalties to cut the gap to 7-6 and they trailed 12-0 at half time.
Boro got a Simon O’Farrell try back converted by Todd, but there would be no comeback.
Boro are still fourth bottom but chasing duo Sheffield and Malton and Norton are two points behind.
Guisborough strengthened their bid to finish second in Durham and North One as they crushed Gosforth 50-3 at home.
Gosforth took the lead with a sixth minute penalty but it was all one-way traffic after that as the hosts ran in eight tries.
Scorers were Dan Stephenson, Michael McDougal, Zak McCluskey, Ryan Connors, Owen Edwards, Liam Corcoran, Jack Robinson and Robert Leggott.
“It was an all-round excellent game of rugby and we had the best referee we’d had this season,” said senior coach Trevor Edwards.
Former England hooker and TV pundit Brian Moore is the special guest at Guisborough’s players’ dinner on April 25.
Stockton lost 39-14 at Ponteland, Yarm were narrowly beaten 29-25 at home by Seghill and Acklam were battered 77-13 by visiting Old Brodleians.
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