Match Preview

PRESTON GRASSHOPPERS V TYNEDALE
Saturday 27th April 2024 (KO 3pm)

Whether it has flown by or whether it has dragged, the end of the season is upon us as the 1stXV travel down to Preston this Saturday for the final match of the 2023/2024 campaign.

TYNEDALE v PRESTON GRASSHOPPERS
The two clubs first met in season 1979/80 and have played 31 times since,
with Tynedale winning 19 of those matches; Grasshoppers have 12 wins.

There have been twenty-one League matches.
Tynedale - 14 wins, 526 points
Preston Grasshoppers 7 wins, 412 points

RECENT MATCHES BETWEEN PRESTON GRASSHOPPERS AND TYNEDALE
2018-2019 Tynedale 31 Grasshoppers 29
2018-2019 Grasshoppers 21 Tynedale 5
2019-2020 Tynedale 34 Grasshoppers 5
2019-2020 Grasshoppers 14 Tynedale 29
2022-2023 Tynedale 17 Grasshoppers 12
2022-2023 Grasshoppers 40 Tynedale 34
And earlier this season:- Tynedale 38 Grasshoppers 43

SIMILAR LEAGUE PERFORMANCES

With one game to go the league tables for the last two seasons are remarkably similar for both Tyne and for the Grasshoppers.

TYNEDALE
LAST SEASON 2022-2023
Position 6th, Won 13, Drawn 0, Lost 13, Points 69
THIS SEASON 2023-2024
Position 6th, Won 12, Drawn 1, Lost 12, Points 72

PRESTON GRASSHOPPERS
LAST SEASON 2022-2023
Position 11th, Won 8, Drawn 1, Lost 17, Points 51
THIS SEASON 2023-2024
Position 11th, Won 8, Drawn 1, Lost 16, Points 52
Can the Grasshoppers beat 11th place this time? With 52 points they need to
overhaul Lymm (54points) to move into 10th place. Lymm have a difficult final
fixture v Wharfedale away at Threshfield.

Tynedale will stay sixth whatever the result of Saturday’s match at Lightfoot
Green.

ALUMNI INFLUENCES

THE GRASSHOPPER NAME
The name ‘Grasshoppers’ was chosen because, amongst the founders of the Preston club were several old boys of Cheltenham College. That school had a game ‘Fireflies v. Grasshoppers’ which is believed to continue to this day.
THE GRASSHOPPER COLOURS
The famous Hopper colours are described as “White shirts with irregular navy hoops”.

However, it is unclear when the club adopted the distinctive colours and style. The earliest evidence is a photograph of the second team wearing the White and Blue irregular hoops in the 1912/3 Season, although the official colours at this time where a plain Scarlet top. So, their colours may have started as a changed 2nd XV shirt.

Sir William Fawell Ascroft, Club President for over twenty-five years, was educated at Rugby School from 1890 and was a member of School House, which had the same style shirts but with red in place of blue. Was he inspired by that style but chose the Navy Blue to match the Town’s colours?

There’s a photograph of a House team of Rugby School from 1871 in the Rugby Museum at Twickenham with the same configuration of hoops. Although the dark colour cannot be determined as it is a black and white photograph, an enquiry made to the school’s historian confirms the dark hoops were in fact Navy Blue.

GRASSHOPPER STARS
Preston Grasshoppers has been a wonderful place to nurture rugby talent. After playing for the club many players won International recognition for England;
Paul Grayson (32 caps), Wade Dooley (55), Steve Borthwick (57), Will Greenwood (55), Pat Sanderson (16), Iain Balshaw (35) and Alex Sanderson (5).

TYNEDALE V PRESTON GRASSHOPPERS THIS SEASON

TYNEDALE 38 PRESTON GRASSHOPPERS 43 – Sept 2nd 2023
In the season opener both sides scored 6 tries with Hoppers gaining a deserved victory through a strong second half performance.
Tynedale got off to a flying start and scored two tries in the opening 10 minutes. ‘Hoppers quickly found their feet, however, and tries were exchanged with Tyne holding a slender interval 26-24 lead.
Hoppers took the initiative in the second half and scored two further tries after which Tynedale were always chasing the game.

PRESTON GRASSHOPPERS THIS SEASON

The ‘Hoppers currently sit in 11th position (4th bottom) and yet have scored an impressive 712 points and are positioned 5th in points scored behind Rotherham (930), Leeds (1064), Fylde (780) and Sheffield (759). (Tynedale have scored 669 points in 8th position.)

In contrast Hoppers have conceded 884 points with only Huddersfield (1090) and Hull Ionians (890) having conceded more, (Tynedale have conceded 645 points with only Rotherham (446), Leeds (441), Sheffield (591) and Wharfedale (473) having conceded fewer)
The ‘Hoppers have certainly been free-scoring but their results have been inconsistent.
Their home form in particular took some getting off the ground and they had to wait until the last week in January for their first home victory!

Ominously their home form is now strong and they have won 4 out of their last 5 home matches.

Preston Grasshoppers league results to date:-
Tynedale 38 Preston Grasshoppers 43
Preston Grasshoppers 27 Fylde 41
Sheffield 36 Preston Grasshoppers 14
Preston Grasshoppers 26 Otley 41
Hull Ionians 15 Preston Grasshoppers 19
Preston Grasshoppers 30 Hull 30
Leeds Tykes 53 Preston Grasshoppers 21
Preston Grasshoppers 39 Sheffield Tigers 41
Huddersfield 17 Preston Grasshoppers 41
Billingham 24 Preston Grasshoppers 38
Preston Grasshoppers 22 Wharfedale 35
Lymm 46 Preston Grasshoppers 22
Preston Grasshoppers 7 Rotherham Titans 34
Fylde 33 Preston Grasshoppers 27
Preston Grasshoppers 24 Sheffield 36
Preston Grasshoppers 44 Hull Ionians 35 27 jan
Hull 40 Preston Grasshoppers 33
Preston Grasshoppers 14 Leeds Tykes 45
Sheffield Tigers 32 Preston Grasshoppers 26
Otley 41 Preston Grasshoppers 12
Preston Grasshoppers 70 Huddersfield 19
Preston Grasshoppers 26 Billingham 22
Wharfedale 31 Preston Grasshoppers 21
Preston Grasshoppers 46 Lymm 42
Rotherham Titans 67 Preston Grasshoppers20

OFFICIALS
Referee: Sam Yates
AR1: Simon Harrison
AR2: Kieron Henry

GROUND
Lightfoot Green Lane
Fulwood
Preston
PR4 0AP

PRESTON GRASSHOPPERS WEBSITE
https://www.pgrfc.co.uk/

CORBRIDGE TO PRESTON GRASSHOPPERS
123 miles – 2hrs 11mins (via A69 and M6)

WEATHER FORECAST
Possible light rain showers, gentle easterly breeze, 12 degrees

SELECTED SQUAD