Saturday 10th March Blaydon Bricks 42, Winlaton Saxons 12

Bricks came out on top, doing the double over the Saxons in the re-arranged league game, snowed off the week before. The Saxons were out muscled by a bigger, more experienced pack and good performances from Scotty, Dale and a very good performance by Dags at No 8, on a scrummage going backwards were not enough for Saxons to match the Bricks forwards on the day. The Winters’ thrive playing the likes of Winlaton, James Knox had a great game at front row and going forward, Arran and Keith made yards from 2nd row and the back row of Harry, Justin and Damien Shaw owned the breakdown. If we hadn’t given away more penalties than England, for hands in the ruck, not releasing when a player’s knee goes down and high seat belt type tackles, the score would have been higher.

 

Highs/Lows:

  • Rodders made yards each time he got the ball and his clearance kicks push Winlaton back time after time. Unfortunately he tweak his hamstring and pulled up which isn’t good news with the cup semi-final only 2 weeks away.
  • Chester and Divers nullified Kieran who had a strong game in the centres for Winlaton, but size wasn’t enough to break the Blaydon line
  • Liam had a good game at 9 and also in the lineout, as we were short of jumpers
  • Rodders had to drop goal the first conversion as Windy couldn’t find the kicking tee, Stracks pointed out it was in Windy’s hand, you couldn’t write the script, der!
  • Anth’s (promoted waterboy) face was a picture, when his name was read out as part of the starting 15, the look only surpassed when it was again read out for starting the 2nd half….
  • Good steal from Justin in our 22, long kick for Rodders into their 22, who then chased it and good tussle with Davy Walton their full back, Anth got there with 9 on his back, even looked like a 9 when he went in, right up until the pass naturally, but ball was popped to Arran to score.
  • Chester and Divers made good lines of running off Alex, with Divers scoring twice, one a good line that beat everyone and Chester had one disallowed as the referee was unsighted.
  • Alex balanced the use of backs and forwards in attack well and controlled the game.
  • Matt Robinson had a good debut for the Bricks after agreeing to sub for us haven just moved into the area.
  • Paul Dingley on the other wing, was strong in the tackle to stop Winlaton wingers from making much progress.

This was a really strong Bricks performance, against a decent Saxons side and but for some lapses in concentration, especially in retreating at penalties, Bricks would have kept a clean sheet on the day. This Bricks side is highly critical of itself and shouldn’t be, given we can’t keep a settled team, we had people playing out of position with injuries and unavailability, it was as Paul said one of our best performances. As I said at the end, if someone had offered me a score-line of 42-12 before the game, I would have snapped their hand off…. Great game/result, well done all!

The real worry is the injuries and non-availability for the cup match on 24th March:

  • Rodders has to be a doubt, Savs, Matt Goodall and Chris Coates are out, so full back may be a draw straws affair
  • Finnaz, Ian Bennie, Stracks and Rob Pyle (backrow one) won’t be seen until next season
  • We have injuries to Matt Purdy, Steve Palmer, Brett,
  • Development are going to need help to get a side out and a bench at home to DMP 3s

Lets hope the responses on the cup match week are a lot better then current response levels….

 

Scorers:

Trys: Liam, Arran 2, Rodders, Divers 2

Conv: Rodders 2, Alex, Divers

Pen: Rodders

Drop Goal: Alex

 

Photos:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/26086313%40N08/collections/

 

  1. Paul Winter
  2. Keith Winter            (Grumpy)
  3. James Knox
  4. Keith Oliver
  5. Arran Poad
  6. Damien Shaw
  7. Justin Clarke
  8. Harry
  9. Liam Bradley
  10. Alex Twinn
  11. Paul Dingley                    (Matt Robertson)
  12. Steven Davidson
  13. Phil Divers
  14. Anth
  15. Rodders