Saturday 24th January – Blaydon Bricks 32, Northern Panthers 17

Top of the league clash sees Bricks come out on top, in what was some awesome forward power play, backed up by some great direct running by Blaydon backs and tremendous defence against a very young and extremely quick Panthers backline.

Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/26086313@N08/collections/72157647182482669/

It looked a bit ominous when Panthers showed up and we thought they were the 2nd team opposition and looked to have about 25 players and we had 2 no-shows, so only had 3 subs. We had a guest on the day, Bum Bum, who played (Blaydon player, currently at Winlaton) 4 games last season (so missed out on his Bricks top at 5 games) turned out for us for his second appearance this season as Keith Winter was away.

 

This could be a report with a few bad clichés, it was definitely about quality on the day, not quantity, Blaydon’s forward dominance was evident from the start with wave upon wave of Forwards running at the Panthers and literally battering them with contact. Scrums for either side resulted in the ball coming to Blaydon as the Panthers pack was marched back at a fast rate of knots. Lines outs were even possession and the only possession they got was when we got isolated and they got to the ball in greater numbers, but once it went out wide; Savs, Chester, Divers, Joe and Matt closed them down and then our pack took the ball off them.

Special mention to Adam and Ryan who have bruises following the encounter and are looking for steaks to put on them to be fit form Saturday. Also special, speacial mention for Ryan for his rampaging runs, as he asked for a special  mention as he felt undervalued in previous reports ……….

Panthers were also not a squad who had played that much together, you can tell that, when the coaches on the side-line are shouting, hey ‘fullback’ as they couldn’t remember his name.

 

Scorers;

Trys: Finnas, Windy 2, Bum Bum 3

Conversion: Joe 1

 

Highs and Lows of the game:

  • Game was proceeded by a return to the changing room, followed by the Cup Final slow walk to the pitch, led by Windy , you could see the determination to win this one building as they got to the pitch.
  • Forwards driving through as a unit and clearing out, few more yards and repeat, it was a long day for Panthers pack, as I don’t think our forwards were looking for gaps, they were just battering into people with weight and colleagues behind them to add more.
  • Every forward, went forward; Finnas, Bum Bum, Ryan, Adam, Horse, Strachs, Windy, Ian and Stu and never took backward steps all day.
  • Chesters passes were a little in front of Joe, well to be fair Joe used to be a lot quicker but given work he had not played for about 6 weeks.
  • Finnas drives over for first try, Ryan goes over shortly after but didn’t manage to get the ball down
  • Scrum was totally dominate, Windy walked in two 5 metre scrums to score and then as he was walking in the 3rd, he broke off 3 yards out and got stopped, explain that one.
  • Stu gets first ‘plonker’ award for taking out a panther in case he recovers a chip and chase with all the rest of his team waiting to catch the chip as it dropped in the middle of them……
  • Second ‘Plonker’ award goes to Horse for caressing the total nugget from the Panthers who seemed intent on cheap shotting anyone he came in contact with, which annoyed our pack even more, who ran into Panthers even more. Someone teach him ‘cause and effect’, he was probably responsible for physicking up our pack so much.
  • Stu Bailey tackling and just getting everywhere to annoy Panthers
  • Bum Bum had a great game, three trys and got everywhere; Stu did, and Keith he didn’t dropped the ball
  • The Next try was Damien, to Matt and offloaded to BumBum to run in 50 yards
  • Savs, Chester , Divers and Matt made great yards when the ball came out and interplay seemed to confuse Panthers backs
  • Russ reported (now in match report so must be true) on the side line that Windy got bowled over on the far side, but the guy was too small to see who it was.
  • Strachs kicks, ricochets of a Panthers, hits him on the head and goes to touch
  • Only kicking funnier was Matt’s conversions, first one went along the 22, second scored a great goal and never got above 4 foot high
  • Good to see Kevin Scott from Winlaton doing well at Refereeing and he control what was a game of niggles well, what pressure, top of league clash, Assessed and Video’d by the RFU, all on the same game
  • Camera was a distraction, our guys kept stopping as they ran past to pose, it’s a video, noggin heads, you don’t have to pose.

 

This was a very determined team who drove out a result and only conceded the 17 point at the end after they tired (lack of enough subs and fitness levels, we discussed training again in the bar, for 30 seconds, but the laughter drown out the conversation) and Panthers took the game uncontested. The display was immense from forwards and backs and one of the best, most competitive games the Bricks have played for a long time, with Panthers competing until the end .

 

Next week is another league game, with a trip to Ashington, if we get this team available again next week, it’s hard to see anyone in this league stopping our run, let’s see who’s available next week.

 

 

Team:

 

 

1. Finnas

2. Bum bum.          (Ian Bennie)

3. Ryan

4. Horse

5 Adam

6 Strachs.                   (Bum Bum)

7 Stu Bailey

8 Windy.

9 Liam

10 Savs

11 Damien.                  (Phil Rayson)

12 Chester

13 Divers

14 joe Snowdon         (Paul Dingley)

15 Matt