Blaydon 46, Cinderford 5

After a relatively quiet first half Blaydon cut loose with 5 more tries in the second to get back to winning ways with a resounding victory.

As director of rugby Micky Ward put it afterwards ” Cinderford are a tough side and we earned the right to play with our defending in the first half, and then reaped the benefits”.
An early Tom Catterick penalty opened the scoring but the visitors took a shock lead with what turned out to be their only contribution to the game. No8 George Evans went over for them from a driving maul but Blaydon were soon back in front from a similar situation when the visitors pulled down the drive and a penalty try was awarded.
By the interval a second score was secured courtesy of a lightning break by scrum-half James Christie to send in Tom Jeffery near the flag, and it was 15-5 at the interval.
Jeffery then got things going again when he raced onto a clever cross-field kick by Andrew Baggett, and from a penalty to the corner Cinderford replacement Michael Uren was yellow carded for tackling a player in the air and Chris Wearmouth took immediate advantage.
Toby Bain ran in the bonus point try with a scintillating break from his own half and then just as the visitors were being restored to a full complement they once more incurred the wrath of the referee for illegally preventing a score.
This time Harry Bate went in from the penalty and the lock-forward made it a double from close range following another driving maul.
The visitors kept plugging away and ever on the lookout for a quick break but a kick intended for the winger bounced favourably for the alert Tom Bramwell who gratefully accepted the gift and raced clear for the 7th and final try.

John Brennan