Blaydon 51 - Heughers 0

Team: A.COOPER, D.GREGORY, M.SAUNDERS, D.BAXTER, D.HOGG, S.MCGUIRE, M.LIDSTER, C.TAYLOR, S.BUTTERY, D.FAWCETT, J.TRUEFORD, S.RAILTON, C.HOPKINSON, J.MANERS, A.SMITH.

Rovers travelled with a bare 15 players after moving up Jim Manners and Jack Trueford from the under 17’s and Coops, young Fin and Matty from the 3rd team. Scotty had to move to scrum half, Adam to full back and Greggs moved to the unfamiliar role of hooker.

The game kicked off and the big Blaydon pack bombarded Rovers time after time and after 10 minutes the defence finally broke and they crossed after a jinky run by the home no 10. Another 2 tries in 3 minutes followed and Rovers were struggling to cope at 17 – 0, 13 minutes into the game.

Good tackling from Daz, Squid and Chrissy Hopkinson who had a solid return from injury, got Rovers back into the game. Despite being in defence for most of the time everything wasn’t going Blaydon’s way and for 15 minutes it was fairly even.

Things took a turn for the worse when Coops had to come off after working hard in a scrum that was retreating at pace. At the same time Daz got on the wrong end of a left and right from a prop and had to retire to the hospital for stitches.

Chrissy moved to stand off, Greggs to centre and the scrums went to unopposed, Blaydon took advantage and ran in another 2 tries before half time, 31 – 0.

Blaydon kindly offered 2 players to make up the shortfall and this was greatly appreciated as the game was only going one way but the players massively helped the inexperienced Rovers lads despite being only young themselves.

More tries were scored after 35 and 50 minutes taking the score to 41 – 0 then Rovers then had a good spell in the home 22 but failed to score on a number of attacks. Good tackling from Squid and the hard working Adam Smith kept them on the front foot with Blaydon only scoring another 2 breakaway tries on 60 and 61 minutes. Thankfully they didn’t get many kicks but the final score ended at 51 – 0.

A big well done to all of the team especially the 2 under 17’s, lads who moved up and those who played out of position, it could have easily been 70+ points. With more away games in the next few weeks we must have more players available to travel or there is no point playing in a league.

All players please try to be available next week.