Rosslyn Park 51, Blaydon 14

 

Life on the road continues to be a problem for Blaydon, this latest defeat being the 6th time in the current season that more than 50 points have been conceded. Yesterday in SW London it was Blaydon who scored first and then last, but in between a rampant Rosslyn Park side made very few mistakes, retained their possession far the better, and ran in 6 tries for a comprehensive victory.
The home side also had the advantage of an excellent goal-kicker in fly-half Harry Leonard who finished with a 100% record, landing 3 penalties and all 6 conversions.
Leonard’s 7th minute penalty gave Park the lead but Blaydon came right back with a fine solo effort by Frazer Wilson who capitalised on good line-out ball when he crashed over for the opening try, Andrew Baggett converting.
The home side advanced their score with 2 more penalties and then just before the interval ran in tries through full-back Paul Henderson and centre Mark Kohler to make it a slightly unrealistic 23-7 score-line at the break.
Crucially for Blaydon they lost prop-forward Paddy Ryan to the sin-bin early in the second period and the rot set in, Kohler with his second, Ed Vaughan, Nick Wade and finally Michael Morris all crossing the visitors line to bring up the half-century of points.
Blaydon stuck to their task but missed important tackles and were left with only the consolation of scoring one of the best tries of the game through centre Tom Grimes who was released 30 metres out and set off on a mazy run through the home defence, Baggett again on target with the conversion.

John Brennan