Sam Gaff inspires South Shields Westoe to victory over Medicals

Westoe were awarded a quick penalty and elected to play the line. The resulting line-out was taken cleanly by Kirton, who spun wide and brought back for Elliott to suck in the defence, feeding Gaff for an easy run-in.

Westoe continued to show their forward dominance after a second penalty, this time they elected for a scrum.

Picked at the base, Gaff offloaded to Booth who, stopped at the line, repaid the favour for Gaff to cross again.

Westoe lost concentration from the restart and a loose ball was picked up by Meds’ Fergus, who touched down, and minutes later, a penalty equalled the score.

Westoe always looked in control, but the Achilles heel saw easy chances wasted by speculative passes that went astray.

Strong running from Derek Worthington and Jamie Preston continuously threatened Meds’ valiant defence, eventually leading to a break from Paul Evans, setting up hooker James Sant, who finished in the corner.

Three minutes later, Worthington broke the defence again, with great support play from Gaff to Evans, and finally to Arnold, who wove and forced his way through several defenders to bring the half-time score to 20-10 and the early bonus point.

It took 16 minutes for the next score. Again, clean line-out was driven by the forward, crossing the line for Gaff to score his hat-trick, converted by booth.

Westoe’s fifth and Gaff’s fourth try came from another scrum.

Meds’ received a yellow card for an infringement at the ruck and Westoe opted for the scrum, Gaff picking from the base and crossing with three defenders on him.

Never giving up, the Meds had Rooney crossing the line to reduce the arrears.

With the clock ticking away, Westoe’s Gaff crossed for his fifth after another dominant line-out.

Meds’ threw everything into one last attack, but Westoe charged down the hill, with Evans offloading to Burrows, who rounded things off with an eighth try of the day, converted by Booth.

Next week, Westoe will have a tough test against fellow league toppers Consett.

The Development team completed the double for the day, winning 29-19 away at Meds.