All change for Blaydon

WITH the Guthrie-Gandy era about to end, the G-force has deserted Blaydon and they suddenly find themselves in an unexpected relegation scrap.

Skipper Dave Guthrie’s announcement that he is to retire after 15 seasons as captain was swiftly followed by news that Director of Rugby Nick Gandy is leaving to take up a job in Beverley.

With the team apparently all but safe, the double blow was not expected to cause any great reverberations. But Saturday’s results were not meant to go the way they did.

Blaydon were supposed to win at home to Southend, who are already relegated, and Westcombe Park were expected to lose at Wharfedale.

The reverse happened and instead of having a safety cushion of 12 or 13 points, Blaydon find it’s down to four with four games left.

They have a game in hand on Westcombe Park, plus a superior points difference and a home match against bottom club Waterloo on April 25. But they’ll get nothing from the other three unless they improve dramatically on Saturday’s dreadful display.

Blaydon stirred themselves for the first seven minutes of the second half, turning a 17- 16 deficit into a 28-17 lead.

Then they became extremely careless, letting the visitors back into it and once Southend got the scent of only their third win of the season there was no stopping them.

Seasoned club men prepared to show pride in the shirt are required in such situations.

But there aren’t many Guthries around and it was after loyal hooker Matt Hall was replaced that things went badly wrong.

It initially seemed Guthrie wouldn’t be missed when he made way at half-time for Dave Whitehead, but when Blaydon desperately needed a rallying call the efforts by the man on the public address were not enough.

For all their talent, Newcastle Falcons youngsters Rory Clegg and Will Welch were powerless to affect the course of the match.

On this evidence Welch is not an open side, or perhaps with a new two-year deal from the Falcons he had no need to impress. Clegg’s place kicking was excellent, otherwise he could do little on the end of a moderate service.

He is reported to be attracting attention from Harlequins, but he was unable to solve the half back dilemma which has killed Blaydon’s season. They were fourth in National Two in late November and competing with all the top clubs, but they have won only once since.

As a top-of-the-ground side, mid-season weather might have sparked their demise.

With pitches now firm and dry they should be playing high-speed, fluent rugby again, but they seemed to be deterred by the strength of the wind.

They relied on a catch-anddrive try by Hall to establish a 10-0 lead after 15 minutes, Clegg adding a fine conversion to his early penalty.

With the diagonal wind in their favour, Blaydon needed to pull further ahead. But although Clegg added two more penalties they conceded two sloppy tries through poor tackling in the last ten minutes of the half.

Blaydon were much snappier on the resumption and after three minutes winger Andrew Fenby nipped over from a penalty five metres out.

Then a burst by Whitehead was continued by prop Andrew Harrison and when the ball was moved right Clegg’s looped pass put Brendon Daniel over in the corner.

Victory looked a formality, but when Ross Batty replaced Hall he was twice spoken to by the referee within five minutes.

It seemed to signal a loss of composure and everything fell apart when poor defence allowed the Southend full back to score a converted try after 58 minutes.

They were ahead eight minutes later when Blaydon lost the ball 40 metres out and left an opponent with a free run to the line.

Three points adrift going into the last five minutes of normal time, Blaydon needed composure and patience.

Instead they gifted the visitors two more tries and as Gandy attempts to avoid leaving on a massive low the threat of relegation will hamper the search for his replacement.