BRFC U16’s Progress into the Quarter Final of the County Cup

On Sunday 29th September in terrible weather conditions Blaydon U16s took on Durham RFC U16s away from home at Hollow Drift, Green Lane.

Blaydon found themselves a try down in the first 3 minutes with a well worked move from Durham on the right wing, which was converted. However, the Blaydon forwards started to dominate the breakdown, resulting in Mark Kelly peeling off a maul which left him 1-1 with the Durham fullback, who he rounded with ease. The forwards continued to dominate the breakdowns which resulted in the backs getting their hands on the ball more. A well worked slam move resulted in Will Hindle (centre) finding space between the Durham back line and crossing over the try line. The conversion was missed, so Blaydon were 12-7 up. With half time approaching Blaydon gave away a penalty allowing Durham to kick over the posts to make it 10-12 going into the break.

Blaydon again dominated the breakdown, and the line speed of the Blaydon backs were forcing the Durham players to make mistakes. After a near identical move from the backs (slam ball), Will Hindle went over again to make it 10-17 (conversion missed). This got Blaydons tails up and we scored again with some good work from the backs on the left wing, resulting in the fullback Chris Tolchard going over in the far left corner making it 10-22 (conversion missed). Durham started to pile pressure on Blaydon to get back into the game. Blaydon turned over the ball and tried to kick it away to clear their lines, but it was blocked by an incoming Durham player resulting in a try. The score now was 15-22 (conversion missed). Durham had a new lease of life and started to pressurise Blaydon, but just couldn’t get the better of Blaydon at the break down. After going through about 4-5 phases, the forwards retained the ball well, resulting in a powerful run by Micky Rewcastle (no8) to smash over the line from 10yards out to make it 15-27. After this, Durham were a bit down hearted and were forced into silly mistakes because of the pressure they were being put under when they had the ball. Blaydon retained possession and the ball was worked from the centre of the pitch to the right wing, where the Blaydon winger was tackled. The Blaydon forwards quickly protected the ball and seeing an opportunity, Nathan Lowes (front row!!) ran 20 metres to score into the far right corner. Score 15-32 (conversion missed).

Blaydon U16s now face Sunderland RFC in the Quarter Final on Sunday 17th November at home and it would be fantastic to see a good crowd at Crowtrees to support the lads (Many thanks to Gary Barnes for providing an excellent match summary).

Tries
Mark Kelly
Will Hindle x2
Chris Tolchard
Micky Rewcastle
Nathan Lowes

Conversion
Chris Tolchard