Saturday 12th Sept. Ashington IIs 12, Blaydon Bricks 32

Our league program started with an outing to Ashington IIs who beat us at the end of last season, so good news we had more people coming back and went with a healthy bench and a number of people not wanting to play a whole game for either fitness levels or were running the GNR (Hopey & Goggle) the next day.

Photos https://www.flickr.com/photos/26086313%40N08/collections/

Scorers:
Trys; Strachs, Horse, Divers & Joe
Conv. Joe, Hopey, Divers
Pen: Divers 2

We arrived at Ashington and good news, we were playing on the big first team pitch, they were mostly very young and quick looking and short and it was uncontested scrums. Hats off to Ashington though, even with 11 players, they were keen to play, so we gave them some bodies and it was game on. Thanks to Thacks, Paul, Steve, Liam, Ian and Anth all of which played some of the game for Ashington.

High & Lows:
• Thacks playing scrumhalf for Ashington cuts hopey in half, he should have passed earlier
• Horse looking keen goes through on poor Ashington line out and secures the ball
• Good to see Ian Kelly back playing, early exchanges saw him forgetting how to catch, but he grew back into the game and contributed well to both sides
• Steve Seame (sorry if name wrong) played his first game of rugby and certainly impressed in his first run out for and against the Bricks
• Good to have Paul Winter, Horse, Craig, Coatsey, Liam, Stu and Thacks playing first games of the season
• Next week we are going to give Strachs his own ball, so everyone else has one between them, (he said he wanted a mention in the Match report as he felt he was not properly recognised)
• Windy had his second run out as open side, you can see him just behind Strachs on the try he scored, he was never going to pass his ball (hee hee) to anyone.
• Strachs did make some good breaks, but needs to take friends with him to secure the ball when he gets stopped.
• And as far as Strachs kicking, naff – they you go Strachs, you got recognised
• Backs scored some good trys with simple running lines and back up
• Good tackling from Coatsey, Divers, Keith, Horse and many others
• Poor tackling from some who know who they are, but lets not name names and hope for improvements
• Anth – we just have to ask what was going through your mind on that cross field kick from your wing into the arms of that very fast quiffed young lad who scored from the gift.
• How Anth got the ball needs further definition, Grumpy in at scrum half throws a long pass to Strachs on our 15 metre line, why use all those long kicking backs we have who could have cleared it, and it hits Anth standing out on the left wing and he kicks, to the touch line, which I 5 metres outside him, but no he went for the opposite touch and it got no where near. All involved in this should do lines as a punishment.
• Thacks psychs out Hopey and slows down his distribution
• Good interception from Divers to run in from 65 yards

So again thanks to Ashington for keeping the game and we now have 2 games under our belts, so surely it has to get better, it will need too as we have Northern IIIs away in the league next week, that will be a hard one
1. Paul
2. Craig McBurnie (Grumpy)
3. Ian Kelly
4. Keith
5. Horse
6. Ian Bennie
7. Windy
8. Strachs
9. Hopey (Stu Reay)
10. Coatsey
11. Anthony (Paul Dingley)
12. Chester
13. Divers (Thacks)
14. Liam (Steve Seame) )
15. Joe