Bricks – one that got away.

Saturday 25th January – Blyth IIs 19, Blaydon Bricks 0
Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26086313%40N08/collections/

Bad day at the office, horrible cold weather at Blyth, lashing with rain, 3 yellow cards and a soaked pitch all took its toll.
All started well, good side on the pitch and plying up the hill in the first half Bricks looked in control with no indication that a ‘to nil’ defeat was coming. It needed an early score to settle things down, but it never came, wave after wave of Bricks attacks were stopped by good defence by a Blyth team as individuals tried to go in close through a well marshalled defence form Blyth and ignore numerous overlaps. Blyth obviously train together and arrive at the breakdown in numbers and created more and more turnovers. When Bricks had possession they started to go off their feet at the breakdown trying to protect the ball as Blyth played the referee and came in from the side consistently and Bricks concede more and more penalties.

Sorry weather so bad and game so frustrating, not many photos this week.

The game had a very new referee who did not stop the off sides and a couple of the tackles on the day should have been more strictly punished. Blyth got away with murder at the breakdown, but the Bricks, with that amount of experience on the pitch should have adapted and played to the ref, instead they got rattled and we end up with 3 yellow cards and a 19-0 defeat. This young referee will improve and go on to ref at a much higher level than Bricks and we wish him every success, everyone has to start and it is an absolute fact, this great game that sometimes frustrates the h*ll out of you, needs the ‘person’ in the middle with the whistle.

Highs & Lows

• Ian from Blyth, thank you, you played as if you were part of the Bricks, really appreciate the help.
• Chris Collins made a return
• Liam came off, well Horse wrapped him up and brought him off and just like a punch drunk prize fighter, he was fighting his removal, “let me on”, I’ll play on the wing, then we pointed out we still had 15 players and sent him for a shower, as he almost past out with the cold.
• Phil Divers seemed to enjoy his first half in the back row and was all over the pitch
• Damien, Paul and Ian took some good high balls as Blyth played the cross kick quite a bit to their pace on the wings
• Bricks kick too much possession away to a good back 3 and the first try was a good break from the fullback who cut through to score from 60 yards
• Bricks made some good breaks, but as individuals and lost possession as Blyth got more number into the breakdown

Summary – one to put behind us and forget and get ready now for next week as we are back to League rugby, still needing a few wins to get us away from the bottom and we have Northern 3s at Crowtrees who will be looking for revenge for us pipping them in the away fixture a few weeks ago.

1. Ian – from Blyth
2. Keith winter.
3. Brett
4. Horse
5. Windy
6. Divers ( Keith)
7. Stu Bailey
8. Strachs
9. Liam (Stu Bailey)
10. Savs
11. Damien ( Ian Burnie)
12. Chester
13. Chris Collins (Phil Divers)
14 Paul Dingley (Chris Collins)
15 Craig Barlow