Blaydon Development 0 – Alnwick 2s 47

The day got off to a bad start when our entire back line cried off and no one from the 2s would travel we had 14 players but under the new candy rules Alnwick also had to play with 14.

The home team moved the ball about quickly finding our weakness out wide. We had to play a flanker on the wing; his natural instinct was to move toward the breakdown leaving acres of space. They moved the ball wide and ran in 2 tries. We stopped this by keeping our winger out wide for the duration of the game.

Our forwards matched Alnwick in the rucks and mauls but at the line out Alnwick managed to get their jumper way up high preventing us getting anywhere near him, he was playing the ball well before he landed at the first, second and 3rd phases we did well but when we tried to pass the ball along the line we ran into problems a scratch back line does not move the ball quickly we had no set play so play broke down on a regular bases this was the difference between the two teams.

We defended well in the centre of the park but when the chance came the well organised Alnwick back division scored every time, one of their tries was a very well executed move which was applauded by both teams. We never gave up and made Alnwick work hard. Stracs went over on his ankle but soldiered on and Scott twisted his knee he too remained on the pitch, but with 15mins to go he again injured his knee and the ref called the game. In all Alnwick ran in 7 tries one unconverted. Our lads never gave up but we were never going to get anything having so many lads playing out of position. Unfortunately Scott joins the ranks of our injured players and won’t be seen for some time