Saturday 19th Sept. Northern Panthers (IIIs) 36, Blaydon Bricks 29

Our second league outing was a great spectacle for junior rugby, entertained a decent crowd and was played on the very large first team pitch, on a very warm sunny day. It was one of the best displays by a Bricks side I’ve seen for some time, who never gave up to the end and it ended in a narrow defeat, as the Bricks ran out of bodies and tired and were beaten by a well drilled very large Northern Panther’s squad, with plenty of fresh legs, Northern won’t loose many games this season and nor should the Bricks if they continue to play this way.

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

Scorers:
Trys; Divers 3, Liam, Steve
Conv. Hopey 2

On a week where we had multiple cry offs for all sorts of reasons, to 2 players just going missing on the day, our prop (Craig stepped up and did a great job as prop) and our full back, (who woke up at halftime after a night on the town…dipstick) so Hopey moved there and Liam came into scrum half. Our cause was not helped when we lost Coatsy our flyhalf, about 20 mins in, after a try saving tackle resulted in a damaged arm, fortunately not broken and then we lost Adam our 2nd row about 10 mins into the 2nd half with a broken thumb, with a lack of subs we had numerous walking wounded and everybody was out on their feet, by the end.

True to say everyone played their part, they was no bad performances, so we are going to skip the usual wide scale pops at our team, but Keith and Harry’s handling (dropped 2 each) gets a special mention, so highs:

• Hits and hard yards made by Harry, Keith and Adam
• Big lad was all round the park
• Craig played well at prop, our scrum was strong
• Good to have Stu back making the hits
• What a 2nd row combination Strachs and Windy made :-)
• Hopey’s spiralling kicks – he asked me to mention them….
• Divers and Chester both in defence and making yards
• Liam played well at scrum half
• Steve’s second game resulted in a good score and some good defence.
• Damien, Ian and Paul made the rest of the tackles
Great all round team display and the return leg to come at Blaydon, you can bet the return fixture in a few weeks will be played on a much smaller pitch and it will be very well watered….. to slow them down.

1. Craig McBurnie
2. Keith
3. Big lad
4. Adam Knox
5. Windy
6. Strachs (Ian Bennie)
7. Stu Bailey
8. Harry
9. Liam
10. Coatsey
11. Steve (Anth)
12. Chester
13. Divers dir
14. Damien dir (Paul)
15. Hopey