Bricks loose, but season rolls on, thanks to the help from all round the club.

Saturday 12th October – Blaydon Bricks 15, Novos IIIs 36

Pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26086313%40N08/collections/

Scorers
Trys Big Lad, Vinnie
Pen. Joe
Conv. Joe

Bricks season is in the balance, injuries, retirements, people moved away and some just not available….. Last Saturday ended up in our game being canned as short notice, our apology to Ashington. This week we were really struggling getting a side, with a long injury list, people away and some just disappeared, but up stepped a number of people to help. Our thanks go to:

• Scott, Callum and Rob Pyle from the Development squad,
• Vinnie who played after originally planning to skip this week as he flys out on holiday
• Gav Stainsby for coming back to rugby after a period out
• Richard Hails coming back after not playing last season, trying to play with flu, we almost killed him
• Big thanks to Chris Morton for stepping in to referee when Durham could not support our game

After winning the Durham Shield 4 times in 5 years we are seriously short of players and need help to keep the season going, after 3 league games we have yet to win a game, so it could be a long hard season if we don’t recruit/get players back quickly.

Our season preparation has not been good, we made the mistake of not doing any warm up games, got battered by a ringer Ryton side in our first game and had to can our 3rd fixture last week. Add to this all the new players who came in, we looked ill structured and rusty.

The game started well, starting with two backrows in the centres and a strong pack we had only one game plan, take it on in the forwards and have the centres bring it back to the forwards, so we were set, we played the smaller top pitch to help our game plan, the issue, aside from the last 15 minutes that game plan went out the window.

We were dominant in the scrums, struggled getting decent consistent line out ball and did a rolling maul once, for about 30 yards and obviously did not like that, as we didn’t do it again. Instead we decided to stand one man off, made great 5 yards ground, in the opposite direction to all our support and lost the ball to a very mobile pack, then continued to do it, time after time.

The Novos side was quick, had loads more mobility, tackled well and scored 4 trys from turnovers in their own half when we got caught isolated without support, were consumed by 4 to 5 Novos players and the ball stripped and off they went.

Some highlights from the game:
• Keiths face when he found out he was open side, then after he missed a couple of tackles, chasing whippets, but when he hit them they really felt it.
• GB on the hoof, got dumped
• Vinnie made some good breaks
• Richard could hardly breath, out on a good show but was wearing Keith’s hands and had a bit of dropsy
• Thacks kept trying long passes, not his forte
• Gav, made some good breaks, but on one occasion got taken out by a sniper when in the open
• Joe did a bit of rolling around in his own 22
• People played out of position to ensure we kept our fixture, thanks everyone

Thanks to everyone who played and supported, it was a very healthy sideline with lots of capability with some of the worst rugby watchers, providing input to our side and the referee.

Thanks to all who played, we showed glimpses of what we could do, showed as a club when things are tough, people around us will always step up.

Thanks go to Steph (The Beast) Mullen who at the age of 50+ (quite a plus) has had to give way to injury and retire following problems with his shoulder last season, good to see him on the side line yesterday supporting the team.

Injuries:
Coatsey, Savs, James Knox, Stu Bailey, Mickey Bell, Andy Turland, Nat, Chris Collins, Liam Bradley, Mickey Jackson, Stu Reay, Cliff, Ming

1. Paul winter
2. Craig McBurniev (Phil Partington)
3. Scott Findley
4. Big Lad
5. Marge
6. Stracs (Callum)
7. Keith Winter
8. Windy. (Stracs)
9. Richard Hails. (Windy)
10 Thacks
11. Rob Pyle
12 Andy Strachen (Gav Stainsby)
13. Vinnie.
14 Damien Shaw (Paul Dingley)
15 Joe Snowdon