Saturday 15th December – From the Director’s Chair
Good Afternoon everyone and hope you are all having an enjoyable build up to Christmas. I would firstly like to thank Bill Locke for hosting The Presidents Lunch and hopefully we will all have a great day after a entertaining game of rugby.
The last 2 weeks have been a real test for Blaydon 1st xv in tricky conditions against some tough opposition. We firstly came up against Kendal in a rainy miserable day which perhaps was not best suited to our open rugby style of play. Even in these freezing wet conditions our boys still wanted to move the ball around and play their brand of rugby. Possibly the only difference was we did this much more in the oppositions territory rather from deep in our own half. Credit to the boys, they executed the game plan well, kicking for territory, turning the opposition and pressurising them hugely at Lineout time and with a formidable kick chase. This made Kendal make errors in their own half which we capitalised on, keeping possession for numerous phases and wearing the opponents down coming away with a convincing 31-15 bonus point win. This really pleased all the coaches because we showed real discipline to perform an unfamiliar game plan to a high level.
If we thought the weather was bad the week before, we had not yet seen what was waiting ahead for us at Kirkby Lonsdale. Welcome to a typical Cumbrian winters day. A day that could of been a potential loss for us was far from it. The lads were amazing and we could not of asked for more. All 18 players demanded hardwork, determination and generally putting your heads where most people would not put there hands. In horrendous conditions we beat Kirkby in every aspect of play from tactical kicking, to smashing defence, to unbelievably good ball handling with minimal errors. Six tries to nil and coming out 36-0 victors. The best performance from a Blaydon team in a long time. Kirkby aftermatch speaker saying they had not come up against a team like that in years, not been nilled at home in forever and a special mention to Alex Clark with 2 simply brilliant solo efforts. Well done lads.
I personally hope we can replicate these last performances today versus Alnwick and send the Blaydon faithful home for Xmas with smiles on there faces and 5 points in the bag.
Kaizen
