Durham City Saracens 44 Blaydon Development XV 12

Saturday 23 March 2019
Durham City Saracens (2nds) v Blaydon Development XV
(Home - Hollow Drift 1) 1:45pm KO
Result : Durham City Saracens 44-12 Blaydon Development XV (HT 29-0)

Team sheet :

15 Rob Smith
14 Antonio Hamilton (James Steele’s housemate and fellow student)
13 James Cook
12 Danny O’Reagan
11 Russell Harris
10 James Coxon
9 James Steele
1 Colin Hogg
2 Tim Mackay
3 John Tindale
4 Jonathan Deighton
5 Kieron Avis
6 Andy Kirkup (Captain)
7 Matt Mercer
8 Matty Sayer

Replacements

16 James Bowman
17 Aaron Burns
18 Tom Davies
19 Matt Hamia (Will Patterson’s fellow student from St Johns College)
20 Jonny Hedley
21 Rhys Henderson
22 Ed Partridge
23 Will Patterson
24 Cole Sims
25 Tom Wilkinson
26 Will Wombell (Will Patterson’s fellow student at St Chads College)

Physiotherapist Grace Maltman

Referee Derek English (Durham Referees Society)

This was a well-deserved 44-12 (8 tries to 2) win against a competent Blaydon Development XV by our ’26’ against their ’16’ on the wonderful setting of the main pitch at Hollow Drift and with conditions of sun, little wind and dry underfoot it was a perfect day for rugby with the game having the ‘early’ kick-off time of 1:45pm so those going to it could catch the ‘Big One’ of Newcastle Falcons playing Sale at St James’ Park. City, despite 18 unavailabilities, turned out with 11 replacements including ex-Colt and current St Chads captain Will Patterson and two of his colleagues flanker Will Wombell and half-back Matt Hamia.

Blaydon kicked off towards the clubhouse end and the first exchanges were an even and robust contest between two well-matched packs who both drove hard, cleared out defenders at the ruck and re-cycled the ball. However it was City who benefited from the early penalties awarded by referee Derek ‘Doc’ English for infringements at the breakdown and with barely ten minutes gone the more dangerous City backs’ good hands put full-back Rob Smith in for the first score that was converted by fly-half James Coxon for a 7-0 lead.

City’s take of the restart was turned over by Blaydon but they conceded a scrum on the City ten. The promise of more City enterprise was then cut short when a City kick went out on the full to give the visitors a line-out on half-way. From there the swift Blaydon left wing was put away, making inroads to the City 22, after the City backs failed to drift-defend and only scramble defence and another penalty to City prevented Blaydon from getting on the scoreboard. The Blaydon winger then retired with what looked like a hamstring pull to further enhance the City backs advantage. A City knock-on at the line-out that followed gave Blaydon a scrum on half-way. This proved to be of no advantage as the City pack put huge pressure on the visitors eight who conceded a penalty that took City into the Blaydon 22 for a line-out. Blaydon snaffled the City line-out ball and worked their way to their line-out at halfway after City conceded two penalties where a City knock-on gave them a scrum. However a Blaydon fumble let City get back into the Blaydon 22 where City’s Matt Mercer won the visitors’ line-out and after successive forward drives and back plays full-back Rob Smith went over again for an unconverted try and a lead of 12-0 after a hard-played opening quarter.

City, now with their confidence high, scored straight from re-start but only after some wonderful interchanges and continuity that ended with hooker Tim Mackay showing pace and determination to get over for an unconverted score that virtually took the game away from Blaydon at 17-0. City then rang some changes by rotating replacements - something that proved to be a feature of the rest of the game. Though City’s easy take of the re-start was turned over with a ‘strip-rip’ tackle, the Blaydon kick for position into the City 22 was returned for a Blaydon line-out on their ten metre line by Rob Smith’s relieving kick. A Blaydon knock-on at the line-out gave City a scrum but no possession as the ball was kicked through to Blaydon rather than being ‘hooked’. Blaydon then threatened but City held out with more good ‘scramble’ defence before City held the visitors up in a maul to get the put-in just outside their 22. A searing break from centre James Cook took play almost to the Blaydon line where they pushed Blaydon off their scrum ball and the backs put wing Jonny Hedley (on for Durham University student Antonio ‘Ant’ Hamilton) over comfortably in the corner for a try converted by James Coxon to stretch the City lead to 24-0 with five minutes to go to half-time.

A City fumble at a line-out then heralded a period of Blaydon pressure but sound City defence and Blaydon losing the ball forward gave City a scrum short of their own ten metre line from which they moved purposefully to an attacking line-out in the Blaydon 22. The opportunjty wasn’t lost and the backs put Rob Smith in for his third try on the stroke of half-time that, though unconverted, gave City a comfortable lead of 29-0.

City’s St Chad’s student Will Wombell valiantly volunteered to play for the visitors at half-time as City continued to ‘rotate the bench’.

The City kick-off was returned for a City line-out in the City half and though City fumbled the line-out the ball was secured but James Coxon’s clearing kick came to nought as City were off-side and the Blaydon penalty was put into touch for their line-out just outside the City 22. From there the home side regained possession and with many good phases the team put some fantastic play together that left centre James Cook with what for him was the simplest of run-ins for an unconverted try taking the score to 34-0 within five minutes of the resumption. The City forwards knocked on Blaydon’s drop-out and gave them a scrum outside the City 22. Then a high tackle penalty for the visitors on the City 22 took them to a line-out near the City line from where their drive for the line was held up in the in-goal. As advantage was being played the play was brought back and Blaydon spirits were deservedly boosted as they got an unconverted try from the forward drive that followed their line-out to reduce their deficit to 34-5

An exchange of kicks ended with a Blaydon penalty for another high tackle on the City ten that they decided to run but they were knocked back to a City line-out on half-way. Second row Rhys Henderson who was warming to his task won the line-out and let the backs put Jonny Hedley away down the right wing but City failed to keep the ball on the park thus giving Blaydon a defensive line-out near their ten metre line. Good off-loads with Will Patterson and Rhys Henderson prominent and a City penalty on the Blaydon ten took play to a City line-out deep in the visitors 22. During these exchanges and after a long delay Blaydon lost their captain to injury with Tom Davies becoming the second City player to deputise for the opposition. Winning an ‘off-the-top’ line-out James Coxon then put in a speculative but clever cross-field kick for his wing but as it eluded the City backs it went dead to give Blaydon a 22 drop-out. From there a City knock-on at the line-out gave Blaydon the put-in just outside their 22. The City pack then destroyed Blaydon’s scrum allowing No.8 Aaron Burns to pick up and charge over convincingly for a try as the game entered the last quarter. A change of kicker brought no extras as Rob Smith’s kick hardly got off the ground and possibly ended up closer to the corner flag than the posts.

Despite their re-start not going ten and City having a scrum back on half-way which they cocked up, the visitors continued to play determinedly with great spirit running any ball they got from all over the park. However frustratingly for them having to play from deep they conceded arguably the best try of the day when fly-half James Coxon spotted no-one at home in the Blaydon back three and caught his own chip on the full to score his trade-mark swallow-dive try for a try that once again was not converted but took the score to 44-5 with a little over ten minutes remaining. In amongst all this activity the City backs then contrived to mess up a massive overlap when left wing Cole Sims failed to hold the pass for an easy score - thus failing to maintain his 100% record having scored in his only previous game away at Houghton stating two weeks ago that he was proud to have maintained it by not getting on the park in the recent WB Rockcliff defeat. However Blaydon continued to move the ball and run their penalties and were rewarded with a well worked converted try from an overlap that owed a little to some weak home tackling that ended the scoring at 44-12. A great hit from prop forward Ed Partridge at the re-start showed how physical presence is as important as good hands and defence, and there was more competitive rugby and enterprise from both sides until the end of the game which the referee shortened by five minutes.

Once again there were many deserving of the Man of the Match award, not least fly-half James Coxon who had controlled much of the team’s play and scored a sublime try, and full-back Rob Smith who scored yet another batch of tries - this time a hat-trick. However because all the players had played so well and because Rob’s abysmal efforts at a conversion and tackling the opposition’s second try scorer ruled him out of it, it was decided to make it a ‘Club’ Award . And that went to ‘committee man on the day’ Mark Berriman for his fantastic work in getting all the lads time on the park even if it did mean giving Blaydon two of our replacements in the second half.

Other aspects of note included :
It was so good to come down to Hollow Drift and see the pitch with flags out and post pads on - so many thanks to Mike ‘Wally’ Howard.
This was a game in which City’s error count was much reduced and not surprisingly some good continuity produced scores.
For the second match running Tom Wilkinson played in a match with one of his former pupils who this week was Will Patterson.
Ed Partridge the biker, ex-Durham School athlete turned prop forward and Brazilian rugby referee of TV fame who along with tight-head John Tindale, loose-head Colin Hogg and hooker Tim Mackay formed a formidable front row union.
No.8 replacement and Petty Officer Aaron Burns putting in a strong performance on his one-off weekend return from naval duties in Devon.
Our replacements, Will Wombell and Tom Davies, who came on for Blaydon in the second half and did so well but obviously not well enough to change the outcome - and memorable for Tom being ‘creamed’ but managing to retain and present the ball
and apologies to those who didn’t get a mention but I hope you’ll understand that with all that was going on it was difficult to keep track.
The win and score takes this season’s playing record to :
P 18 W 12 D 00 L 06 F 733 A 468 and a try count of 117 for and 75 against.

and a fantastic turnaround from last season’s record of :
P 20 W 05 D 01 L 14 F 349 A 642 and a total of 60 City tries.

We’ve got Ryton 2nds away this Saturday 30 March 2019 in a League game that kicks off at 3pm when we’re hoping to avenge the 50-57 home defeat and 17 try thriller at the start of the season when unforgivably we let slip a lead of 50-33. A leading points aggregate score that looked likely to survive for some time only to be surpassed this week with the 1st team’s 80-33 win at Medicals - does anyone know if this is some kind of a record ? (Although I remember City putting a similar amount if not more past Northern back in the eighties or was it the early nineties ?).

City scorers :
Rob Smith 3 tries
James Coxon 1 try and 2 cons
Aaron Burns 1 try
James Cook 1 try
Jonny Hedley 1 try
Tim Mackay 1 try

Stewart Eddie
Friday 29 March 2019