Blaydon RFC U15s 55 – Durham RFC U15s 19

Scorers: Aidan Ferguson 4, Sam Green 1, Taylor Hannant 1, Ewan Brown 1, Scott Aiston 1, Lloyd Hall 1
Conversions: Dan Tedstill 5 from 9

I am sure most of you are aware but Durham conceded the game due to not being able to field a competent front row, we decided to play a friendly with uncontested scrums. I didn’t tell the boys as I wanted to keep them sharp. The first half was great, we were making some fantastic dominant carries up front with Matty Stewart, Josh Chapman, Taylor Hannant & Lloyd Hall always gaining ground and keeping us on the front foot then showed our power and pace in our back line when we moved the ball wide. My try of this half started with our defence launching their blind side runner through the sideline around the opposition 10 yard line. Lewis V rose like a salmon in the 2 spot in the lineout, played it off the top into the safe hands of MR Forrest – the ball was then fired through the back line and eventually hit Aidan whom was steaming into the back line and as soon as the ball hit his hands you knew he was going to go over the line………. take a bow son!!

The second half seen us show our weakness in defence as a series of missed tackles led to them getting a few scores which was 1 of 2 disappointing parts of our performance today. The other was at the breakdown, our body positions weren’t too bad and we were getting over the ball but then we thought the job was done and we relaxed which gave us problems when they counter rucked. Apart from that we still dominated the 2nd half and I would like to say my favourite try was from the scrum 10/15 yards out with a pick and go from Ewan Brown, offload to Dan Tedstill about 5 yards from the line and again fired it through the hands to see Scott Aiston finish well in the corner. But Lloyd stole the show with a sneaky show and go about 30/40 yards out and glided through their defensive line to race in for a fine score.
All in all a good day at the office, well done men 👍💪👊🏻

The Semi Final is on February 2nd and Blaydon are travelling to Bishop Auckland for a repeat of their Quarter Final clash last year. (Summary from Paul V, pictures from Matt Forrest, many thanks)
#rugbyfamily #blaydonno1 #pumpthecrow

County Cup U16 Quarter Final – Blaydon 45-17 Sunderland

Nerves were tense from both sides prior to this cup match. Sunderland kicked off the game with the catch being cleanly caught by a Blaydon forward; the ball was quickly passed inside to Jack Harvey who powerfully ran through the Sunderland defence to score under the posts. With 2 minutes gone Blaydon RFC were 7-0. Over the next 10mins both sides looked nervous, with possession changing over through penalties or knock ins. Blaydon turned the ball over in a Sunderland line out and was passed to Jack Harvey who again ran through the Sunderland defence making it 14-0.

Sunderland started to enjoy plenty of possession in the middle of the pitch without causing Blaydon too much problems due to a strong defence. During a passage of play from Blaydon a wayward pass was intercepted by a Sunderland 2nd row who ran under the posts to make it 14-7. This gave Blaydon the focus they needed, with the forwards now dominating the breakdown and retaining possession and keeping to the structure we know. This paid dividends on the stroke of half time with after 4-5 phases and finding ourselves 5-6 yards from the Sunderland try line, the ball was passed inside to Ryan O’Neal who powered over the line. Half time BRFC 21-7 SRFC.

Half time saw Blaydon increase the intensity and with 3 minutes into the 2nd half saw Mark Kelly finding a gap and running in a try to the left making it 28-7. To give Sunderland credit, they were not done yet. 2 turnovers from a Blaydon scrum and line out saw Sunderland driving over the try line in the right corner giving the score 28-12. Again Blaydon kept up with the intensity (especially line speed in defence) and with the ball being passed out to the left after a breakdown in the middle; Will Hindle ran in a try from the opposition 22.

Blaydon now had a foothold in the game and started to relax a little, a Sunderland line out deep inside the Sunderland half saw a Sunderland player spill possession as a result from a solid tackle by Thomas Jones, Blaydon quickly capsulised on this, with the ball being quickly passed from left to right which saw Jack Barnes score right in the far corner. The score was now 40-12. This saw the intensity of the game ease off; after a Sunderland try in the right hand corner the resultant kick off from Blaydon saw a Sunderland player knock on. The scrum was taken on the Sunderland 22, after Blaydon retaining possession, a simple pass inside to Jack Harvey saw him round off a good team display and his hat trick of tries to finish off the scoring at 45-17.

The next round will be the semi final held on 12/01/20 at Blaydon RFC against the winners of the Hartlepool OB v Bishop Auckland game and it would be great to see the rest of the youth sections and the club get behind the U16’s. Well done boys/coaches.

West Hartlepool U18 5-28 Blaydon Academy

Firstly what a fantastic result bearing in mind the Academy are still suffering from a massive injury list and had a number of players unavailable on our National Cup weekend. Many thanks to Jason Dube for getting Vusi down to Hartlepool when he got a late cover for his shift and to Kris who missed a family meal to play.
In awful conditions on a very heavy pitch the lads were in total control of the game for large periods, hampered by excellent defence by the home side and the lack of a little luck and a bit of guile.
Evan scored 4 tries in typical unstoppable fashion once our pressure had stretched their big lads from side to side and constantly battering them.
Kelvin was excellent at turning over the ball. Adam was a constant menace to them in the lineout. Bradley drove 5 of their players off the pitch by himself at one point. Richie captained the side well and ran some hard yards.
We kicked 100%of our conversions. Good to have Matty back!!!
Many thanks to Steve Davidson for providing the match report and he has informed me that the next round will be at BRFC on November 17th, details of kick off time and opposition to follow. It would be great to get some support down to Crowtree’s to cheer on the Academy side.