Friendly Fire: Match Report – New Earswick All Blacks v York Acorn: Saturday 1st March -
Match Report: NEAB v York Acorn
Date: Saturday 1st March 2025
Venue: New Earswick Sports and Social Club
Friendly Fire
New Earswick All Blacks hosted NCL Premier Club York Acorn in an open age friendly fixture as part of their pre-season preparation. The All Blacks were not at full complement and came up against a York Acorn team that had a mix of first team and ‘A’ team players to ensure a tough test was in stall for them this afternoon.
It was the first opportunity for newly appointed Head Coach Paul Meillam to cast an eye over his squad and assess where they are at ahead of their first competitive fixture against Bramley Buffaloes at home on the 29th of March in the cup.
A healthy crowd was in attendance to see the new look All Blacks and they weren’t disappointed as they witnessed a great contest played in the right spirit.
It was a tough start for the All Blacks with an error being made on the first set off the kick off. This gave York Acorn the early ascendency in the game as they applied pressure on the All Blacks line asking a lot of questions. However, the All Blacks demonstrated a lot of commitment and desire defensively as they scrambled and prevented a couple of try scoring opportunities. The weight of possession and field position early on finally took its toll as York Acorn played a lovely sweeping move to the left-hand side getting on the outside of All Blacks winger Lewis Carter and scoring the opening try of the game which was converted.
Following that try the pressure continued for the All Blacks as a number of handling errors and ill-discipline with penalties from them provided York Acorn with further possession and field position resulting in two more tries being scored and York Acorn extending their lead to 16 points to nil. To add further misery to the All Blacks, prop Luke Morton was sent to the sin bin only minutes before half time for a high tackle reducing the All Blacks to12 men.
Halftime saw the All Blacks regroup and address the issues from the first half. Even though they were reduced to 12 men it was the All Blacks which started the better of the two teams in the second half. After 10 minutes they were rewarded for their improved ball control and discipline as Alex Wilkins crashed over from short-range carrying 3 Acorn players over the line with him. Shortly after this the All Blacks were attacking the Acorn try-line again. A great carry from Leo Hutchinson saw him get between bodies and produce a silky offload to loose forward Ben Gibson who was in close support to crash over under the posts. With both kicks converted by half-back Connor Calem the All Blacks were within 4 points.
The next 20 minutes saw a real arm-wrestle with both teams attacking and defending well but the game got away from the All Blacks in the final 10 minutes when a mistake was made on the halfway line backed up by a penalty being conceded 20m from the all Blacks try-line. York Acorn was pressing the line and then moved the ball well to their left creating an overlap and a try was scored in the corner to put the game to bed.
Head coach Paul Meillam was pleased with the defensive commitment on display by his players and was proud of the way they fought their way back into the game putting them in a position to potentially win the game.
Overall, it was a good first hit out for the All Blacks, plenty of encouraging signs and a good platform to build from. Preparation and attention now turns to the eagerly anticipated cup fixture at home against the Bramley Buffaloes on Saturday the 29th of March.
All Blacks Team: Lancashire, Carter, Holmes, Ritchie, Smith, Calam, Gargan, Baynes, Carling, Morton, Malarkey, Wilkins, Gibson. Subs: Telford, Starkey, Hutchinson, Caddie, Williams.
Bob Bradford Man of the match: T. Lancashire