Blaydon start their league campaign with a good win – Blaydon 29, Blackheath 16

The scoreboard showed Blaydon to be 7-16 down at the break after a half in which the visitors, with the benefit of the referees whistle, held an advantage at scrum and line-out and were overall deserving of their lead.

But by the end however the Blackheath scrum was in complete disarray and in an amazing turnaround Blaydon had ran in 22 points unanswered and were in complete control

“We were so confident throughout, even at half-time. We gave too many penalties away but put some good stuff together and felt if we cut the penalties out in the second half and kept hold of the ball for a few phases we could squeeze them out” said Director of rugby Micky Ward.

Visiting fly-half Fred Gabbitass landed 2 early penalties but Blaydon grabbed the opening try on 23 minutes. A Sean English burst into the 22 had come to naught but when Jason Smithson followed suit soon after scrum-half Rhodri Adamson nipped in to score and Andrew Baggett added the points.

In a Blackheath counter attack the Blaydon defence appeared to stand off expecting a ‘foot in touch flag’ whilst Devin Montgomery ran on to send in Jack Walsh. Gabbittass added the points and then another penalty before the break but that was to be it for the visitors.

On 54 minutes Blaydon lost an attacklng line-out, were almost over but lost possession from another, but Keith Laughlin gathered in the clearance for winger James Cooney to scoot through in fine style.

Bagget added the conversion but his penalty attempt to give Blaydon the lead drifted well wide. Another effort disappointingly rebounded from an upright and this time when Blackheath scrambled it clear Tom Small ran it straight back at them to make it 19-16.

Baggett’s conversion and then a penalty when Blackheath collapsed a scrum in front of their posts put the visitors out of sight, and No8 Gavin Jones put the icing on the cake with a last minute bonus point try from a rolling maul.

John Brennan