Jarrow Vikings win North East Premier Grand Final at Kingston Park

Jarrow Vikings clinched the 2021 North East Premier Championship after a dominant 56-18 win over the Cramlington Rockets at Newcastle’s Kingston Park.

The star of the show was wing Jake Arnold, who crossed a fabulous five tries as the Vikings took control from the outset, and never let it go thereafter.

Jarrow struck first with Rory Nettleton diving over from short range, before the Rockets again let Jarrow through with centre Phill Wall stepping inside to dive over for another converted score.

Seeing very little of the ball in the opening exchanges, the Rockets struggled in the opening phases, and Jarrow took full advantage, with Paul Evans adding a third try, before the Arnold cantered in for two tries of his own, adding the extras on both occasions to leave Cramlington trailing 30-0 after twenty-five minutes.

Derek Worthington then added yet another before the break before the Rockets’ Joe Capless found a gap out wide to score and get his team on the board.

Any thoughts of a comeback were quickly extinguished as Arnold collected a fine kick through to complete his hat-trick just before the hooter.

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The Rockets started the second half brighter, finding more field position and seemingly alleviating the pressure but Arnold had other ideas, breaking the tackle on halfway and out sprinting the defence for his fourth try.

A series of penalties under the Jarrow posts went unrewarded for Cramlington who struggled to find fluency across the back line with ball in hand. However, eventually the pressure told and a kick down the right wing was collected by an unmarked Jack Tait to score Cramlington’s second. Parker again adding the conversion.

With both sides starting to tire in the final quarter, it was Jarrow who eventually broke down the much-improved Rockets defence through James Pocklington’s try before Jack Arnold took Jarrow beyond the 50 point mark with a penalty kick and then yet another breakaway try, this time down the left wing for try number five. After collecting his breath, his aim remained sharp to add the conversion.

Rockets full back Joe Capless acrobatically dived over for his second just on the final hooter, but it was to be Jarrow’s day.