Blaydon 19 – Rosslyn Park 18

The advantage swung back and forth in this exciting clash at Crow Trees with Blaydon finally taking a deserved lead midway through the second period but then Rosslyn Park pulling back the deficit to just one point late on only to fail with the vital conversion kick.

Scott Sneddon landed 2 early penalties for the visitors but Blaydon full-back Simon Barber latched onto an Andrew Baggett chip over the defence to score the opening try. By the interval Park were back in front when Adam Bellamy crashed over from a tap penalty move but Blaydon swiftly took control after the restart.

Electing to ignore a series of kickable penalties in favour of a line-out drive their enterprise looked to have been in vain until winger Tom Jeffery collected a loose clearance and stormed through a shocked defence for a fine try’

Seeking further success another penalty to the corner then resulted in a more fortuitous score  as they lost the line-out only for the ball to bounce kindly for Fran Entressengle, the replacement hooker having only just joined the fray.

Facing a 3rd defeat of the season Park were galvanised into attack and with time running out were rewarded with a tremendous solo effort by Tom Howe who picked the ball off his toes and set off cross field in a mazy run to  score wide-out. Sneddon, with thus far a 100% record, had the opportunity to win the game but his effort drifted well wide.

Star man:          Ben Morris (Blaydon)

Referee:            Darren Gamage

Attendance:      338

HT:  7-13          FT:  19-18

Scorers

Blaydon

Tries:               Barber 18, Jeffery 56, Entressengle 63.

Conversions:   Baggett 18, 56.

Rosslyn Park

Tries:              Bellamy 25, Howe 77.

Conversion:    Sneddon 25

Penalties:       Sneddon 2, 20.

 

Reporter:       John Brennan